Urge Him to Auction a Kidney: Revealing Texts in Feeding Our Future Jury Bribery Case Show Negotiations and Enthusiasm
In some wild turn of events, five suspects were hit with charges in a bribery case, but a twist in the tale reveals that a mysterious sixth individual also knew about the dang bribe. Yeah, you heard it right! This case, centered around some shady dealings with Feeding Our Future, just got more tangled than a skein of yarn.
Turns out, some sneaky text messages have surfaced, shedding light on how the suspects were wheeling and dealing, even plotting against each other in what can only be described as a hurricane of chaos. Picture this: “100 for our freedom is nothing, bro,” texted Abdiaziz Farah after they handed over $120,000, per court papers. “Worth trying everything, bro,” he added. Sounds like high stakes, right?
The Feds nabbed these deleted nuggets from text-land thanks to the trusty FBI. And wouldn’t you know it, while five hoodlums are already fingered in this case, Mukhtar Shariff, the unsung accomplice, was apparently in the know too. Mukhtar’s shot into the spotlight during the first Feeding Our Future trial earlier this spring, right when jury talks were looming. It’s like a Hollywood flick!
On the legal front, Monday’s paperwork drops a bombshell from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Though Mukhtar’s not officially in the bribery case, they claim he “knew about the bribery attempt and destroyed communications he had with his co-defendant Abdiaziz Farah about the bribe.” Now that’s some serious wiping of evidence, folks.
Here’s how it went down: Mukhtar got these texts from Abdiaziz just hours post a $120,000 handoff to a juror in the Feeding Our Future trial—Abdiaziz co-owned Empire Cuisine—the nerve center of a colossal $40 mil fraud disaster. The jury hammered him with 23 guilty counts, marking him the top offender.
Legal scribes for Mukhtar, however, zipped their lips on these jaw-dropping revelations. Meanwhile, Abdiaziz shot a video Mukhtar’s way showing the big drop-off at the juror’s crib on June 2nd. It’s here Abdiaziz and the rest of his cronies recruited Ladan Ali from across the border in Seattle to play Santa with the bribe.
That night, on the Signal app, Abdiaziz confided in Mukhtar, waxing poetic about freedom and the adventure of “trying everything.” Not long after, he clarified the cash nature of their dealings.
“That’s it, bro,” he messaged, full of hope and probably a smidge of terror. “I have a good feeling she will come through, and that’s a lot of money for her family.”
“It’s a team effort, bro,” rolled in a few ticks later, supposedly from Abdiaziz to Mukhtar.
In the courtroom, the news hit like a ton of bricks when Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson aired the not-so-clean laundry the very next morning. But Mukhtar, in a clever move, bleached his phone clean of evidence. Too sleek though, as the FBI caught on and unraveled partial notifications—not full monty chat strings—from their beloved Signal app and tapped into phones belonging to Abdimajid Nur and Said Farah.
Prosecutors plan to seek an extension of Mukhtar’s sentence due to justice obstruction when he steps up for his deeds in the Feeding Our Future game. Among those convicted with him were Abdiaziz, Abdimajid Nur, Mohamed Jama Ismail, and Hayat Nur.
Said Farah and Abdiwahab Aftin waltzed away victorious, acquitted of their charges from the trial that sparked this whole bribery saga, while Ladan was never tossed amidst trial defendants.
The bribe accusations unrolled into a tapestry draped across Abdiaziz, Said, and Abdimajid—participants from the Feeding Our Future trial, plus new faces; Ladan and Abdulkarim Farah. Ladan and Abdimajid copped to their white-collar sins whereas Abdiaziz, Said, and Abdulkarim held their “not guilty” placards high.
Amongst the newly disclosed chats, Abdiaziz’s dread of a unanimous guilty verdict reared its head, while he hurled insults toward U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel. “She is a terrible human being,” Mukhtar reportedly got in a text from Abdiaziz. “My wife and siblings stopped coming to court ‘coz they couldn’t stand her.” Suddenly, it’s getting personal!
Bonus tidbit? Prosecutors believe the bribery cabal eyed Juror 52 for her supposed outlier status: an age minority and sole person of color in the juror box during the Feeding Our Future trial. Their cunning plan? They sought her “not guilty” vote across the board, dreaming she’d sway her fellow jurors too.
The tricksters scribbled away, assembling a suite of persuasive patter for juror 52’s arsenal—pieces like “We are immigrants: they don’t respect and care about us,” and “prejudice against people of color.” Emotional heft aiming for the jugular, eh?
Boldly admitting her ruse in her plea agreement, Ladan confessed tracking Juror 52 before slipping her the moolah, yet harbored little faith the bribe would work. She outright fibbed to Abdimajid about meeting the juror, demanding $500k, when reality saw her plotting to squirrel off the cash all for herself.
Skeptical to the core, Abdiaziz seemingly lacked trust in Ladan too, seeing her more like a wild card who might shake up the game.
“Abdiaziz did not fully trust Ali, and remained concerned that Juror 52 would not follow through with an acquittal,” according to prosecution files.
“She [Juror 52] literally wants it dropped off at her house. 500K,” Ladan’s text read, spilling her demands to Abdimajid.
Abdiaziz, exhibiting some doubt, pitched an alternate play: “We can do 100k tomorrow and 25k Monday at her house. Tell her the money is coming from overseas. And it needs time or something like that bro.”
The plan rumbled on, Ladan kicking up a fuss over paltry sums, eyeing that fat half-mill instead. “No deal,” she fired off. “Is he crazy? I promised her that money … I will literally go to jail. This girl is not playing. Tell him to sell a kidney babe if he has to!!! She needs it all tomorrow.”
They struck a middle ground—$200,000 locked and loaded for Juror 52’s persuasion. Prosecutors peg Said Farah as the cash cow behind this lofty payday.
“Getting money was painful bro,” Abdiaziz allegedly shared via text. You can almost hear his sigh, ey?
Ladan initially aimed to drop it solo, but Abdiaziz, savvy as ever, insisted his younger sibling Abdulkarim tack along to capture the moment on video. A hidden body cam plan was floated but never inflated. Capturing candid feedback from the juror was a catch yet to be caught either. The deal finally broke through the clutter, a gift bag crammed with $120,000 left with the juror’s dad on June 2nd, as she wasn’t home. Ladan copped to pocketing a nifty $80,000 for her troubles while Abdulkarim hit the record button, cementing this clandestine operation in video history. But what spilled out threatened to drown each defendant as they sent the video to one another with a deft invitation: watch and delete.
“We did it, babe,” Ladan gleefully texted Abdimajid after sealing the deal. “I did it. I can’t stop crying. I’m celebrating as if the verdict has been read.”
Though Abdiaziz wore a specter of doubt, uneasy whether their cash reserve sated an unverified juror. He voiced his trepidation, “I hope we didn’t give 200k to some Mexicans bro. Why didn’t we ask to talk to the [expletive] girl[?]”
On May 30, 2024, the courtroom bore witness to Mukhtar Shariff’s testimony for his part in the Feeding Our Future fraud trial. Credit: Cedric Hohnstadt
Post-bribe distribution, with a mind full of ideas, Abdiaziz proposed deploying a diel list of talking points to the juror via her father directly. Thus ensuring their clandestine persuasion was equipped for deliberation.
“I’m sure they took the day off after all that [sic] pesos,” Abdiaziz allegedly chortled in a text exchange.
Resuming the trial on Monday, June 3, Ladan, caught up in the chaos, speculated and texted Abdimajid—checking if juror 52 was playing it cool in the courtroom.
“She’s in there? Acting normal?” she inquired. “I have a feeling it’s all good baby! Lmk the moment she’s in & it’s all good. Also lowkey read her vibe & face.”
Plot twist—the juror’s seat cooled empty. She hadn’t shown up but dialed the police right after learning about the bribe, promptly flipping the game script.
As the court awaited order, proceedings du jour, Abdiaziz buzzed Abdimajid, planning to outmaneuver Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson.
“JT looks nervous as shit, we gotta blindside this guy for real,” he allegedly conjured, referring to the savvy prosecutor. “Tell L[adan] to get on that bro.” Within minutes, the courtroom’s atmosphere ticked tense as Thompson unveiled the bribery shenanigans, rolling the candymen into a legal snag by arresting all seven defendants then and there.
Standing in court, acknowledging the elephant, Thompson sized up the scene: “Let’s be honest,” he declared, addressing the day’s discourse on the bribe, “it wasn’t someone outside of this room.”
Edited by: Ali Musa
alimusa@axadletimes.com
Axadle international–Monitoring
