Woman accused of paying bribes in Feeding our Future trial pleads guilty

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – It looks like the woman accused of handing a bag containing $120,000 to a juror in the Feeding our Future fraud trial will now plead guilty.

The court file in the bribery case now provides for a change in the plea for Ladan Ali.

What happened?

While deliberations were still underway in a massive fraud trial, a juror reported to police that a woman had shown up at their home and left a bag full of cash for a family member.

The woman stated that the money was intended for an acquittal vote in the trial.

However, the juror did the right thing and reported the bribery attempt to the authorities. He was then dismissed from the case and the rest of the jury was quarantined.

Who is Ladan Ali?

Prosecutors believe Ali was the woman who brought the bribe to the juror's house.

Ali lives in Seattle, Washington, and was flown in to deliver the bag of cash.

What did the authorities say?

Federal prosecutors compared the bribery to something out of a Mafia movie when they filed charges against five people in June.

“The news shocked everyone involved in the case and everyone who works in our criminal justice system,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. “Infecting a jury through intimidation or bribery is a serious federal crime punishable by a lengthy prison sentence. Nationally, the Department of Justice and the FBI take jury intimidation and bribery extremely seriously and always have. But in Minnesota, it just doesn't happen – until now.”

Prosecutors believe the bribery suspects targeted the juror because, at 23, she was the youngest in the case.

“When the bribery was disclosed in court, lead prosecutor Joe Thompson correctly stated that it looked like something out of a Mafia movie,” Luger explained. “That was three weeks ago. But now, after weeks of working around the clock to uncover this conspiracy, it is so much more. The indictment and other documents allege that these defendants carried out a terrifying attack on our justice system. They attempted to buy a juror and use her to infiltrate her with their own false arguments – arguments that had nothing to do with the evidence or the law. They studied her, followed her, and were determined that she would succumb to their plot.”

What happened in the “Feeding our Future” fraud case?

The jury ultimately reached a split verdict: five relatives were found guilty on most of the charges, while two others were acquitted.