Suspect who allegedly left $120,000 at home of Feeding Our Future juror pleads not guilty

A woman who authorities say left a bag of $120,000 in cash at the home of a Feeding Our Future juror pleaded not guilty to federal charges Thursday.

Ladan Ali, 31, was charged with conspiracy to bribe a juror, bribery of a juror and corruptly influencing a juror. Ladan made her first appearance in federal court Thursday, and prosecutors did not seek to detain her.

Ladan, who lives in Seattle, must stay in Minnesota while her case proceeds, surrender her passport, and not have any contact with co-defendants in the case, among other conditions. She and her attorney declined to speak with reporters after the court appearance.

Charges were announced Wednesday against Ladan and four others in the alleged bribery attempt. The other defendants are Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, Abdulkarim Farah and Abdimajid Nur. Abdiaziz was also charged with obstruction of justice.

Abdiaziz, Said and Abdimajid Farah were among the defendants in the first Feeding Our Future trial, which ended earlier this month. Abdiaziz Farah and Abdimajid Nur were found guilty on multiple counts, but Said Farah was acquitted of all charges.

Abdulkarim is the brother of Said and Abdiaziz Farah, but was not previously charged in connection with the alleged food aid fraud. The three men made their first court appearance in the bribery case yesterday, and are currently in federal custody.

The attempted bribery rocked the end of a six-week trial where jurors convicted five of the seven defendants of multiple charges for stealing $41 million of federal child nutrition funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On June 2, the eve of the last day of closing arguments in the trial, a woman showed up at the Spring Lake Park home of a juror and left a bag of $120,000 in cash, according to federal prosecutors. The woman allegedly told the juror’s father-in-law that another bag of money would be waiting for her if she voted not guilty in jury deliberations.

The juror, a 23-year-old woman, reported the bribery attempt to the local police, who in turn went to the FBI.

The indictment announced Wednesday identified the woman who dropped off the money at the juror’s home as Ladan. According to the indictment, Ladan was recruited by Abdimajid Nur to carry out the bribe.

Ladan flew to Minneapolis to meet with Abdimajid and discuss a plan to bribe the juror, the indictment says. Ladan agreed to deliver the money in exchange for $150,000. Ladan attempted to follow the juror home from court, and her rental car was near the juror’s home 19 times, federal prosecutors say.

A gift bag that contained the bribe money was submitted by the FBI for fingerprint analysis and found Ladan’s fingerprint. A package that was delivered to the hotel Ladan was staying at in Bloomington contained a GPS tracking device.

According to court documents, Ladan is connected to a company that was involved in the Feeding Our Future case. Ladan is a signatory on a bank account in the name of Afro Produce LLC, which court documents say received millions of dollars from entities involved in the fraud scheme.

Records of other Afro Produce LLC bank accounts were submitted in the first Feeding Our Future trial, court documents say. The records show that Afro Produce LLC received more than $1.6 million from entities including Empire Cuisine and Market, Bushra Wholesalers and the ThinkTechAct Foundation, which were all connected to defendants in the first trial.

Court documents also say that at trial, prosecutors introduced falsified invoices they say were created by Abdimajid and Hayat Nur — another defendant in the first trial — which aimed to show that food was purchased from Afro Produce LLC.

Ladan also received large checks from Afro Produce LLC in 2021 and 2022, court documents say. The checks included memo lines with phrases such as “consulting” and “salary.”

On the account agreement for Ladan’s personal bank account, she listed her employer as GarGaar Family Services, which court documents say is also known as Youth Leadership Academy. In 2021, the Minnesota Department of Education found GarGaar or Youth Leadership Academy “seriously deficient” and prohibited it from participating in the federal child nutrition program, court documents say.