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Woman pleads guilty to leaving cash bribe for Minnesota juror in COVID-19-related fraud case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Seattle woman who attempted to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country's largest COVID-19-related fraud cases changed her plea to guilty in federal court Thursday.
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Ladan Mohamed Ali, left, a Seattle woman who attempted to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country's largest COVID-19-related fraud cases, and her attorney, Eric Newmark, leave the Diana E. Murphy U.S. Courthouse, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Minneapolis, following after a hearing where she plead guilty. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Seattle woman who attempted to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country's largest COVID-19-related fraud cases changed her plea to guilty in federal court Thursday.

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, was accused of tracking a juror to her home and dropping off a cash bribe in exchange for an acquittal in a separate fraud case.

Court documents revealed an in which Ali and her co-defendants are accused of researching the juror’s personal information on social media, surveilling her, tracking her daily habits and buying a GPS device to install on her car. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman, known as “Juror #52,” because she was the youngest and they believed her to be the only person of color on the panel.

The bribe attempt surrounded the trial of seven defendants in COVID-19-related fraud cases. The defendants were accused of coordinating to steal more than $40 million from a federal program that was supposed to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds were taken overall in the scheme, and only about $50 million has been recovered, authorities say.

Ali is one of five people charged in the attempted bribery of the juror, a scheme prosecutors have described as “something out of a mob movie.”

Michael Goldberg (), The Associated Press

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