A Minneapolis man will spend nearly five years in prison for trying to bribe a juror with $120,000 cash during a Feeding Our Future trial in 2024.

Abdulkarim Shafii Farah (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, 25, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty to one count of bribery of a juror for his role in the plot, which included four co-conspirators.

The others, including Farah’s brothers Abdiaziz Shafii Farah and Said Shafii Farah, have also pleaded guilty to the same charge, but have yet to be sentenced.

Abdulkarim Farah’s 57-month prison term is at the high end of sentencing guidelines. He’ll be on supervised release for one year following incarceration.

While handing down the sentence, Judge Eric Tostrud praised the juror for rejecting the bribe and said that “properly functioning juries are the core of our criminal justice system.”

In April 2024, Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah and five others went on trial at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis as part of the massive $250 million federal COVID-19 nutrition program fraud case.

During the trial, Abdulkarim Farah worked with his brothers and Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and Ladan Mohamed Ali to provide cash to a juror in exchange for returning a not-guilty verdict.

Abdulkarim Farah conducted surveillance of a juror, referred to in court documents as Juror 52, and of her home in Spring Lake Park. He sent Nur a map of where the juror parked while serving on the jury.

“The conspirators targeted Juror 52 because she was the youngest juror and they believed her to be the only juror of color,” the indictment read.

Nur, 25, who was also on trial, recruited Ali, 33, to deliver the money. Farah was instructed to drive Ali to Juror 52’s house. Farah first went to a Target store and bought a screwdriver, which he used to remove the license plate from Ali’s rental car, as they attempted to avoid being caught by law enforcement.

Farah drove Ali to Juror 52’s house about 8:50 p.m. June 2, 2024, the night before the trial’s closing arguments were set to wrap up. Farah recorded a video of Ali delivering a Hallmark gift bag with the bribe money inside. Ali handed the money to a relative of Juror 52 and said there would be more money if the juror voted for acquittal in the trial.

After the bribe was disclosed in court the next day, Abdulkarim Farah deleted the Signal encrypted messaging app from his cellphone to destroy the video and messages about the bribery attempt, prosecutors said.

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Jurors convicted five the seven fraud defendants, including Abdiaziz Farah and Nur. Said Farah, 44, was acquitted of all charges. Abdiaziz Farah, 37, was sentenced to 28 years in prison, while Nur received a 10-year term.

Prosecutors say Feeding Our Future fraudsters claimed reimbursement from the state education department for millions of meals they never served as part of a federal pandemic meal aid program for children.

Seventy-nine people have been indicted in the case, with 51 having pleaded guilty and seven found guilty at trial, including alleged “ringleader” Aimee Bock. She awaits sentencing, although her attorney has said she plans to appeal.