Search warrant lays out what the FBI found on defendants’ phones in juror bribery case

Federal prosecutors released this screenshot of a street surveillance video they say shows a juror being followed home from the courthouse. Photo courtesy of U.S. Attorney's Office.

The month-long trial of seven people charged with stealing federal money meant to feed hungry children during the pandemic was winding down .

Four of the seven defendants’ attorneys had delivered their closing arguments on Friday, May 31. The last three lawyers would give theirs the following Monday.

But three of those defendants had big plans for the weekend, according to a federal indictment.

They recruited a 31-year-old woman named Ladan Mohamed Ali of Seattle to fly to Minneapolis and deliver $120,000 to one of the jurors — the youngest juror, at age 23, and the only person of color, an Asian-American.

Ali was connected to a company called Afro Produce, which prosecutors say received millions of dollars from entities involved in the Feeding Our Future federal case, for which the seven defendants were on trial.

During the trial, prosecutors showed what they said were fake invoices created by two defendants purporting to document food purchased from Afro Produce.

Prosecutors say Ali received a $20,000 check from Afro Produce in August 2021, a $10,000 check in December 2021 for “consulting,” and a $10,000 check in January 2022 for “salary.” In bank records, she listed her employer as GarGaar Family Services, otherwise known as Youth Leadership Academy — which the state barred from the food program in December 2021.

But Ali — like many others connected to the nation’s largest pandemic relief fraud — had not been charged with a crime. Yet.

She was living in Seattle during the trial, and booked a round-trip flight to Minneapolis from May 30 to June 5, according to Delta Airlines records obtained by federal investigators. Enterprise Car Rental records indicate Ali rented a Volkswagen Taos with Texas plates.

Juror No. 52 lived at the end of a short, dead-end street in Spring Lake Park, a town of about 6,400 on the edge of the suburbs north of Minneapolis.

The juror drove about 15 minutes to get to the federal courthouse every day for 24 days of testimony and arguments — she was sometimes late and racing to get to court on time. She always parked in the Jerry Haaf Memorial parking ramp one block east of the courthouse.

Jurors weren’t sequestered for the trial, meaning they were free to go home each night. They could take tunnels or skyways to get to their parking spots, but many didn’t. When the trial ended each day, the jurors would get on elevators and head to the ground floor, then straight out the front door of the courthouse, into sunny downtown Minneapolis, across the street from City Hall. Some defense attorneys and their clients would avoid getting on the same elevator as the jurors, to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

On Friday, May 31, a rented Volkswagen Taos was parked on the street near the Haaf parking garage around 5 p.m., when the trial usually adjourned each day, according to surveillance video from the parking garage obtained by federal investigators.

Shortly before 6 p.m., Juror 52 exited the parking garage in her car, and the Volkswagen pulled out, crossed three lanes of traffic and followed the juror’s car onto South Fourth Avenue, and then on to Spring Lake Park, according to Enterprise Rental Car GPS data.

A license plate reader at the end of Juror 52’s block showed the Volkswagen drive past the juror’s house repeatedly that night and over the weekend. The same device captured the Volkswagen passing at 6:15 p.m. that Friday, and again about 50 minutes later, then a half hour later. The next day, Saturday, the plate reader recorded the car pass by 14 times, according to a search warrant.

Then on June 2 — the day before the trial was to resume with closing statements and then jury deliberations — the Volkswagen was recorded passing by at 4:47 p.m. and again at 9 p.m.

Shortly before 9 p.m. that night, a “possibly Somali” woman wearing a long black dress went to the juror’s house and — using the juror’s first name —left what she called a “present” with the juror’s relative, according to a search warrant.

The juror called 911 to report that someone left a Hallmark gift bag containing $120,000 in cash. The person said they’d bring another one if she voted to acquit the seven Feeding Our Future defendants.

According to a heavily redacted transcript of the call obtained by the Reformer , she called 911 about 10 minutes before 9 p.m., and told the dispatcher a woman left a bag of money at her house about five minutes prior.

“This isn’t an emergency, but I don’t know who to call,” she told the 911 dispatcher.

She said she didn’t see the person, and that they “drove off in a car” after leaving the bag. Prosecutors have said the vehicle was described as a Mazda, although the caller told the dispatcher “it was hard to tell,” and prosecutors now say it was the same Volkswagon that repeatedly passed the house.

The dispatcher said officers would look around for the vehicle and then come to the juror’s house.

The next morning, shortly before all the lawyers gathered in the courtroom of the federal courthouse, with the jury still in a back room, federal prosecutors informed defense attorneys of the attempted bribe.

When the judge came in the courtroom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson stood up and explained how someone had tried to bribe Juror 52 the night before. As reporters and defendants’ family members looked on in shock, FBI Special Agent Jared Kary kept a close eye on the defendants. He noticed brothers Abdiaziz Farah and Said Farah seemed nervous, in contrast to their usual laid-back manner during the previous six weeks in court. Said Farah went in and out of the courtroom quickly, cell phone in hand, and appeared to be making phone calls from the courtroom — which is frowned upon by judges.

Thompson asked the judge to have the defendants turn over their phones and “freeze” the scene. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered the defendants to put their phones in “airplane” mode and surrender them to the FBI agent, Kary.

Kary noticed Abdiziz Farah continued to use his phone “for what appeared to be longer than necessary” to put it in airplane mode. After a search warrant was approved later, agents found the phone had been reset to factory settings, erasing everything on it, according to the indictment.

After a search warrant was approved, investigators found defendant Abdimajid Nur had made multiple internet searches for “Juror #52”; searched for information about trackers and hidden cameras; searched for information about law enforcement agents involved in the case; searched the words “jury nullification”; and, on April 28 Googled “how did oj Simpson juror get paid.”

On Said Farah’s phone, agents found a video recording of Ali delivering the bribe. The video shows a woman walk up to the house carrying the white bag, talk to the juror’s relative, hand the bag to him and then run back to the car.

Meanwhile, Ali was booking a one-way flight home. Flight records show she flew back to Seattle at 2:30 p.m. She had checked into the Hyatt Regency in Bloomington the Friday prior.

The hotel manager told an FBI agent two Amazon packages had been left at the hotel for her; agents found cosmetics in one and a GPS tracking device in the other.

A spokesperson for U.S. District Court in Minnesota said the court is considering a “range of options” to better secure juries, but no decision has yet been made.

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