Minneapolis Man Sentenced for Scheme to Bribe Feeding Our Future Juror

Abdulkarim Farah, a Minneapolis man, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 57-months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for his role in providing a cash bribe to a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen.

On April 22, 2024, seven defendants went to trial before U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel for their roles in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. Two of the defendants on trial were brothers of Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, 25. During the trial, Abdulkarim Farah conspired with his brothers and others to provide a cash bribe to one of the jurors-Juror 52-in exchange for returning a not guilty verdict in the trial.

According to Mr. Farah's plea agreement, after his co-defendants identified and decided to target Juror 52, Mr. Farah conducted surveillance of Juror 52 and Juror 52's house. Mr. Farah also sent a map of where Juror 52 parked during jury service. Co-defendant Ladan Ali was recruited to deliver the bribe money to Juror 52, and Mr. Farah was instructed to drive Ali to Juror 52's house and record a video of Ali delivering the bribe. After meeting Ali in the vicinity of Juror 52's house, Mr. Farah drove to a Target store to purchase a screwdriver. Mr. Farah used the screwdriver to remove the license plate from Ali's rental car in order to avoid detection by law enforcement.

On June 2, 2024, at approximately 8:50 p.m., Mr. Farah drove Ali to Juror 52's house and recorded her delivering a gift bag containing the bribe money. As Ali handed the money to a relative of Juror 52, she explained that there would be more money if Juror 52 voted to acquit the defendants. After the bribe money was delivered, Mr. Farah sent the video he had taken to his brother, Abdiaziz Farah. After the bribe had been disclosed in court, on June 3, 2024, Mr. Farah uninstalled and deleted the encrypted messaging app Signal from his iPhone in order to destroy the messages he and his co-defendants exchange concerning the bribery attempt.

Abdulkarim Farah was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Eric C. Tostrud to 57 months imprisonment-the high end of Mr. Farah's federal sentencing guidelines range and the sentence advocated for by the government. While handing down the sentence, Judge Tostrud said that "properly functioning juries are the core of our criminal justice system" and that it is the role of the federal judiciary to safeguard citizens' rights to fair and impartial juries. Judge Tostrud also expressed gratitude to Juror 52 for resisting the temptation to accept the very substantial bribe.

The 57-month sentence represents the high-end of Mr. Farah's sentencing Guidelines range

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI with assistance from IRS - Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Assistant U.S. Attorney's Rebecca E. Kline and Matthew C. Murphy prosecuted the case.