A woman pleads guilty to trying to bribe a juror in a major COVID-related fraud case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Seattle woman pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud cases.

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, was accused of tracking a juror to her home and dropping off a cash bribe in exchange for an acquittal in a separate fraud case.

Court documents revealed an extravagant scheme in which Ali and her co-defendants are accused of researching the juror’s personal information on social media, surveilling her, tracking her daily habits and buying 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 her to be the only person of color on the panel.

The bribe attempt surrounded the trial of seven defendants in one of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud cases. The defendants were accused of coordinating to steal more than $40 million from a federal program that was supposed to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds were taken overall in the scheme, and only about $50 million has been recovered, authorities say.

Ali is one of five people charged in the attempted bribery of the juror, a scheme prosecutors have described as “something out of a mob movie.” Her attorney, Eric Newmark, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The four others charged with crimes related to the bribe are Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Said Shafii Farah, Abdulkarim Shafii Farah and Abdimajid Mohamed Nur.