Saturday 07, Sep 2024 {HMC} A Seattle woman admitted in court Thursday that she bribed a Feeding Our Future juror with $120,000 in cash and tried to trick her co-conspirators into giving her $500,000 for her help.

Ladan Ali, 31, pleaded guilty in federal court in downtown Minneapolis to one count of bribery of a juror. She previously pleaded not guilty in June to conspiracy to bribe a juror, bribery of a juror and corruptly influencing a juror.

Ladan and federal prosecutors agreed to a prison sentence of about 4 ½ and 6 years in prison for her crime, following sentencing guidelines.

Ladan, dressed in a black trenchcoat, high heels, and a black hijab, grew emotional when Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson explained to her that a judge would ultimately decide her sentence, and could go above or below the plea deal’s agreement.

Ladan tearfully responded, “Yes, I do,” as Thompson asked her multiple times whether she understood the situation.

“Knowing all that, do you still want to proceed today,” Thompson asked.

“I do,” Ladan said in a confident voice.

Thompson asked Ladan why she was pleading guilty.

“From the very beginning, I wanted to take responsibility for my actions,” answered Ladan, who did not have any supporters in the gallery.

Ladan was one of five defendants charged in the jury bribery case. Another defendant, Abdimajid Nur, pleaded guilty in July to one count of bribing a juror and agreed to a prison sentence of between 5 to 6 ½ years.

The rest of the defendants — Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah and Abdulkarim Farah, all of whom are brothers — pleaded not guilty in July to juror bribery charges.

Ladan’s plea hearing offered new information about the attempted bribe. Ladan admitted in court that her initial plan was to take all of the bribe money for herself, but that she ultimately only skimmed $80,000 out of the $200,000 bribe she was given to deliver to the juror.

Ladan and her attorney, Eric Newmark, declined to comment as they left Thursday’s hearing. Ladan has been out of custody since she was charged in June, and was allowed to leave until her sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

Bribe rocked highly watched trial

The attempted bribe rocked the end of a six-week trial in the broader Feeding Our Future case. The trial was already intensely watched by the media and public, because it was the first Feeding Our Future case to go to trial. Seventy defendants were charged in the overarching Feeding Our Future case, which involved the alleged theft of $250 million in federal child food-aid funds earmarked to feed underprivileged children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jurors in the joint trial convicted five of seven defendants of stealing $41 million. Abdimajid, Abdiaziz and Said were defendants in the trial. Abdimajid and Abdiaziz were convicted, Said was acquitted. The other defendants in the trial are not charged in the bribery case.

But a day before the jury was set to begin deliberations, Ladan showed up at the Spring Lake Park home of a 23-year-old woman identified as Juror 52, according to indictments in the bribery case. Prosecutors say that Ladan and her co-defendants targeted Juror 52 because she was the youngest juror and the only person of color on the jury.

Juror 52’s relative answered the door, and Ladan gave him a gift bag with $120,000 in cash and told him to tell Juror 52 that she would receive more money if she voted not guilty during deliberations, according to charges. Juror 52 wasn’t present at the time, but immediately notified police when she arrived home and learned what had happened, prosecutors said.

The situation left Juror 52 shaken, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said at a July hearing in the case.

“Juror 52 was terrified,” Thompson said at the time. “I’ve seen the [police] body cam [footage]. She was crying. She’s still terrified.”

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel quickly excused Juror 52 from the jury, and sequestered the jury during deliberations to prevent jurors from learning about the attempted bribe.

Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger has said that “the sophistication and intentionality of this plot cannot be overstated.”

Prosecutors allege that the defendants researched Juror 52 online, found information about her and her family and discovered her home address. Abdimajid allegedly recruited Ladan to carry out the bribe.

According to court documents: Ladan, who lives in Seattle, flew to Minneapolis in May to meet with Abdimajid and discuss the plan. She agreed to contact the juror in exchange for $150,000. Ladan tracked Juror 52 as she drove home from a Minneapolis parking ramp, and drove by her home multiple times.

Ladan planned to take it all

In court Thursday, Ladan admitted that she falsely told Abdimajid that she met Juror 52 in a bar and explained the bribe to her. Ladan told Abdimajid that Juror 52 agreed to vote not guilty for a bribe, but wanted $500,000.

Ladan admitted in court that she planned to take the $500,000, or any amount her co-defendants could provide, for herself and ditch plans to offer it to the juror. Ladan told the court she planned to take all of the money because she was worried that the bribe wouldn’t succeed.

Abdimajid believed the story about Juror 52, but could only come up with $200,000, Ladan said Thursday. Ladan confirmed the details by providing yes or no answers to questions from Thompson, and did not speak at length herself.

The initial agreement was that Ladan would drive to the juror’s house and Abdulkarim would follow her in another car and record video of Ladan exchanging the money with the juror. Ultimately, Ladan’s plan to take all of the cash failed when Abdulkarim drove her to the juror’s house himself.

Ladan said Thursday that somewhere along the drive, she successfully pocketed $80,000 for herself, and ultimately dropped off $120,000 at the juror’s home.

The federal government has since recovered the money.

The Feeding Our Future case that led to the attempted bribery involved the Minnesota Department of Education distributing federal funds to sponsor organizations like Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care. The sponsor organizations then dispersed those funds to food vendors and food sites, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children.

Several organizations reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did — or simply never served any meals at all — in order to receive more federal funds, prosecutors say. Recipients allegedly spent the money on cars, property, vacations and other items.

In addition to the five defendants who were convicted at trial, 18 have pleaded guilty.

Ladan, who is not charged in the broader Feeding Our Future case, was connected to a company involved in the alleged fraud, according to information outlined in the bribery charges against her. She is the signatory on a bank account for Afro Produce LLC, which received millions of dollars from companies that prosecutors allege were directly involved in the fraud. She also received checks from Afro Produce in 2021 and 2022, according to court documents.

Afro Produce received more than $1.6 million from three organizations that were run by defendants in the Feeding Our Future trial that led to the bribery case.

Ladan also listed GarGaar Family Services as her employer on her bank account, a company that for a time participated in the federal child food-aid programs.

SOURCE

CGTN