A leading figure in Minnesota’s sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud scandal will spend another decade behind bars after attempting to buy his way out of a criminal conviction. Abdiaziz Shafii Farah was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison for his role in a plot to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash. The new sentence will be served consecutively to the 28-year term Farah is already serving, bringing his combined prison sentence to 38 years.
Chief U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud imposed the maximum 10-year penalty during a sentencing hearing in St. Paul. Farah was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term. Tostrud described the attempted bribe as an attack on the judicial system and told Farah, “It is hard to imagine a more serious case of bribery.”
The bribery attempt unfolded during the first federal trial connected to Feeding Our Future, the Minnesota nonprofit at the center of a massive scheme involving federal money intended to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Farah and six other defendants had been on trial for approximately seven weeks when members of the group attempted to deliver cash to a juror in exchange for acquitting all seven defendants. The conspirators selected the woman, identified in court records as Juror 52, because she was the youngest member of the jury and appeared to be its only person of color.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of slightly more than 11 years, arguing that a severe punishment was necessary to deter others from attempting to corrupt the court system. Farah’s attorney instead requested a sentence of six and a half years, with most of it running at the same time as his existing fraud sentence. Tostrud rejected that request and ordered all 10 years to be served after Farah completes the 28-year term.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Murphy told the court that Farah and his co-defendants had launched “an unprecedented attack on the justice system and democracy itself.” Murphy also described how the conspirators researched the juror, monitored her movements, located her house and attempted to make unwanted contact with her family. “How creepy is it that a defendant in a case is stalking you online and in real life, following you home, coming to your door, researching who you know in common?” Murphy asked. “It’s chilling.”
The Department of Justice previously said Farah worked with Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, and Ladan Mohamed Ali to collect and deliver the bribe money. On June 2nd, 2024, Farah instructed Nur to collect the cash from Said Farah’s business. Nur later handed Ali a cardboard box containing $200,000, from which she placed $120,000 inside a Hallmark gift bag for delivery to the juror’s home.
According to the DOJ’s original indictment announcement, Ali handed the gift bag to one of Juror 52’s relatives and said the money was a present in exchange for a not-guilty verdict. She also promised that more money would follow if the juror convinced the panel to acquit every defendant. Abdulkarim Farah remained in a vehicle and recorded the delivery, then sent the footage to Abdiaziz Farah.
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Farah forwarded the video to his brother Said through an encrypted messaging app along with the instruction, “watch and delete.” When prosecutors revealed the attempted bribe in court the following morning, Judge Nancy Brasel ordered the defendants to surrender their phones. Farah conducted a factory reset of his iPhone minutes after receiving that order, deleting messages, video and other evidence connected to the plot. He pleaded guilty in June 2025 to one count of bribery of a juror.
The new sentence comes on top of the 28 years Farah received for his leading role in the Feeding Our Future fraud operation. The DOJ said Farah and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million by falsely claiming to have served 18 million meals to children at more than 30 purported distribution sites. Farah personally pocketed more than $8 million and used taxpayer money to purchase luxury vehicles and millions of dollars in real estate in Minnesota, Kentucky and Kenya.
Farah apologized before the latest sentence was imposed, telling the court, “I regret it every day.” Tostrud found that the severity of the plot required a sentence separate from the punishment Farah had already received for stealing the child-nutrition money. “This was a coordinated assault on our system of justice,” the judge said.
Watcha Somali migrant freeze up when reading “Fraud is bad” from a script: