Brooklyn Worker Pleads Guilty In Jury Bribe Plot

"In a turn that feels more like a crime thriller than a routine court date, a Staten Island restaurant worker pleaded guilty on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, to obstructing justice after federal prosecutors said he helped try to bribe a juror in the Brooklyn federal trial of heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic. The plea, entered in Brooklyn federal court, followed an FBI probe that intercepted a series of meetings and phone calls tied to an alleged payoff plan. The revelation has frozen Gogic's trial in place and tossed a new legal wrench into an already sprawling drug trafficking case."

"According to the New York Daily News, the defendant is 54-year-old Mustafa Fteja, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives on Staten Island and worked at Positano in Bay Ridge. Prosecutors say Fteja admitted arranging meetings with a seated juror and offering an initial $50,000, allegedly with the promise of a $100,000 total payout if the juror went along. Fteja pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing justice in Brooklyn federal court."

"Prosecutors say phone records and FBI recordings show frequent contact between Fteja and co-defendant Valmir Krasniqi in mid-November 2025, including meetings on Nov. 13 and Nov. 15 and a surveillance-monitored gathering at Krasniqi's Staten Island home on Nov. 16. Authorities allege that Afrim Kupa was also involved, and that all three men were brought to federal court on Nov. 17, 2025. Fteja has remained free on a $150,000 bond, while prosecutors say Krasniqi and Kupa have been held without bond at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn."

Mustafa Fteja, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked at Positano in Bay Ridge, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing justice after arranging meetings with a seated juror and offering an initial $50,000 with an alleged promise of $100,000 total if the juror complied. An FBI probe intercepted meetings and phone calls tied to the alleged payoff plan. Phone records and FBI recordings show frequent contact between Fteja and co-defendant Valmir Krasniqi in mid-November 2025, including meetings on Nov. 13, Nov. 15 and a surveillance-monitored gathering on Nov. 16. All three men were brought to federal court on Nov. 17, 2025. Fteja remained free on a $150,000 bond while Krasniqi and Afrim Kupa were held without bond. U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack dismissed the jury and halted Goran Gogic’s trial, and prosecutors requested disqualification of Gogic’s attorney Joseph Corozzo Jr., potentially delaying proceedings amid an international drug trafficking indictment.

Read at Hoodline