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Crime, Law and Justice
Matt Sepic
Minneapolis

Feds raid home of jailed food fraud defendant amid jury bribe investigation

Bags of money
FBI agents retrieved $120,000 in cash that was allegedly left at the home of a juror on June 2.
FBI via court records

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FBI agents on Wednesday searched the home of one of the defendants in the Feeding Our Future trial following allegations of jury tampering.

Abdiaziz Farah is one of 70 people charged with taking part in alleged $250 million scheme to defraud federal child nutrition programs by falsely claiming to have served millions of meals. Farah, 35, is among the first seven defendants to face trial.

A man who lives near Farah on a dead-end residential street in Savage told MPR News that agents arrived at his neighbor's house around 7 a.m. and remained there for several hours. The neighbor, who asked that his name not be published, confirmed details of the raid, which was first reported by KARE 11.

As the five-week trial was concluding, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel on Monday paused defense attorneys’ closing arguments when Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson told the court that an unnamed woman had visited a juror’s home late Sunday, dropped off a gift bag containing $120,000, and promised more cash in exchange for an acquittal vote.

The juror, a 23-year-old woman who lives in a Minneapolis suburb, called 911. The FBI collected the cash and Brasel replaced the juror with an alternate.

Brasel ordered all seven defendants jailed, and the FBI seized their phones.

Agents first searched Farah's house in Savage in early 2022 during coordinated raids on two dozen locations, including those of Feeding Our Future, the now defunct Twin Cities nonprofit that investigators say was at the center of the alleged fraud scheme.

Prosecutors allege that Farah purchased the $575,000, 4,100-square-foot home with money stolen from taxpayers.

In trial testimony on May 15, Roberto Amenta, a financial fraud investigator with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that one of Farah’s businesses, Empire Enterprises, sent a wire transfer from Old National Bank to a title company for the purchase price of the house on April 15, 2021.

The seven defendants are connected to Empire Cuisine and Market, a small restaurant in Shakopee. They’re accused of siphoning $47 million from the food programs.