Two out of five people charged with conspiracy to bribing a Minnesota juror with a bag containing $120,000 in cash in exchange for the acquittal of suspects in one of the country’s largest COVID-19 fraud cases, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
Said Shafii Farah and Abdulkarim Shafii Farah were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Tony Leung in Minneapolis. A third co-defendant pleaded not guilty last week. They each face one count of conspiracy to bribe a juror, one count of bribing a juror and one count of corruptly influencing a juror. Leung ordered both men held in custody for trial, saying the crimes they are accused of committing threaten fundamental aspects of the justice system.
“In my decades on the bench, I have never seen an attempt to bribe a juror in such a pre-calculated, organized, and executed manner,” Leung said. “That to me goes to the heart of an attack on our justice system, on the rule of law.”
Lawyers for Said Farah and Abdulkarim Farah asked Leung to consider releasing them before trial with conditions, arguing that the law does not create a presumption of detention for the charges they face. They also said both men had significant community ties that would prevent them from fleeing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said bribes to jury members are so rare as to be “almost unheard of.” He compared the five Minnesota defendants to John Gotti, the notorious mob boss at whose 1987 trial a juror was later convicted of accepting bribes to secure an acquittal.
Leung said threatening the rule of law put the community at risk and made the arrest of both men necessary.
Court documents released last week revealed an extravagant scheme in which the defendant researched jurors’ personal information on social media, kept tabs on her, tracked her daily habits and purchased a GPS device to install on her car. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman, known as “Juror 52,” because she was the youngest and they believed she was the only person of color on the panel.
The FBI said the juror called police after Ali allegedly came to her home and handed a gift bag containing $120,000 in cash to the juror’s family, explaining that there would be more money if the juror voted to acquit. The juror was removed from the case before deliberations began.
The other three people charged with crimes related to the bribery are Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and Ladan Mohamed Ali. Abdiaziz Farah, who is also charged with one count of obstruction of justice, will not be arraigned until July 10 because he recently hired a new lawyer. Ali pleaded not guilty last week and Nur’s hearings have not yet taken place.
The bribery attempt has brought renewed attention to the trial of seven Minnesota defendants accused of coordinating more than $40 million to steal from a federal program meant to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic. Abdiaziz Farah and Abdimajid Nur were among five people convicted in the fraud trial last month, while Said Farah and another person were acquitted. Abdulkarim Farah and Ali were not involved.
In total, more than $250 million in federal funds were seized in the scheme, and only about $50 million has been recovered, authorities say. Abdiaziz Farah sent millions in stolen money to Kenya, which he used to buy a 12-story apartment building in Nairobi, prosecutors have said.
In public statements after the bribery charges were announced, prosecutors said the case will have a lasting impact on the region’s criminal justice system.
“It is no exaggeration to say that it has truly shocked our legal community and raises questions about how we conduct jury trials in this district going forward,” Thompson said.
