Final guilty plea in Feeding Our Future bribery case

The fifth and final defendant in the Feeding Our Future-related juror bribery case is expected to enter a guilty plea. In a filing made today in federal court, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah signaled his intent to enter a guilty plea in the spinoff case. Farah had already been convicted in the fraud case last year that gave rise to the attempted juror bribery charge.

The guilty plea by Abdiaziz appeared all but inevitable when his older brother, Said, announced last week his intent to plead guilty in the case. Said is scheduled to plead guilty at a hearing next Wednesday at the Federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.

The update on the case’s defendants:

In last year’s fraud trial, Abdiaziz was portrayed as the ringleader of the Empire Cuisine group of defendants. In the indictment for the juror bribery case, Abdiaziz is again portrayed as the ringleader (page 5, paragraph 5a and page 6, paragraphs j and k). Abdiaziz was also charged with a separate count of obstruction of justice for deleting his phone during the investigation (p. 10).

With the Abdiaziz guilty plea, there will not be a courtroom trial in the case.

The Star Tribune has a report.

As part of the endless parade of overseas travel, Defendant No. 11, Asad Abshir, is asking permission to travel to Turkey in early June. If granted, this would be Abshir’s fifth trip to Turkey since his 2022 indictment in the Feeding Our Future case. His trial is scheduled for August.

In other Feeding Our Future news, the sentencing of Sahra Nur, Defendant No. 24, has been rescheduled for May 20. Nur’s sentence would be just the fourth handed down in the case, so far, against 45 convictions.