After fraud acquittal, Feeding Our Future defendant gets 6 1/2 year sentence for bribing juror
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A federal judge in St. Paul on Friday sentenced a defendant from the first Feeding Our Future trial to 78 months in prison for trying to bribe a juror.
Said S. Farah, 44, was one of two defendants acquitted at the 2024 trial, but he later pleaded guilty to taking part in a ham-handed gambit to influence the outcome.
After closing arguments started, Farah conspired with his brother Abdiaziz S. Farah and Abdimajid M. Nur, who were also defendants in the trial, as well as two others, to offer a cash payment to a woman identified in court only as Juror 52.
They recruited another brother, Abdulkarim S. Farah, 25, and a woman who lived in Seattle at the time, Ladan M. Ali, to deliver $120,000 tucked inside a Hallmark gift bag to the juror’s home.
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Ali left the bag with Juror 52’s father-in-law and included a note promising more money if she’d vote to acquit. The juror was not home at the time, but when she returned and discovered the money, she immediately called police.
The FBI investigated and federal prosecutors soon charged the five with jury bribery.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud said that that juries are at the heart of the criminal justice system, and bribery in any one case threatens the integrity of the entire system.
Tostrud applauded the juror’s honesty in turning down what could have been “life-changing money.”
“It’s not overstating things at all to say that Juror 52 is a hero,” Tostrud said.
In July, Tostrud sentenced Abdiaziz to 10 years for leading the bribery scheme and ordered him to serve the sentence after serving 28 years that Judge Nancy Brasel previously imposed for the fraud conviction.
Abdulkarim is serving a nearly five-year term for his role in the scheme. Prosecutors said that Abdulkarim drove Ali to the juror’s home and recorded video to prove to the other conspirators that Ali had delivered the cash.
Ali and defendant Abdimajid M. Nur each face sentencing in November.
