1. Three men face federal charges <\/p>\n
Mustafa Fteja, 54; Valmir Krasniqi, 35, and Afrim Kupa, 52, were arrested and charged with corruptly attempting to bribe a juror and obstructing the administration of justice. <\/p>\n
According to a criminal complaint, the men attempted to pay a juror $100,000 to deliver a not guilty verdict in the narcotics trial of former boxer Goran Gojic. The alleged scheme took place over four days, from Nov. 13 to Nov. 16, just before the trial was scheduled to start.<\/p>\n
2. Recorded conversations, surveillance <\/p>\n
The federal investigation relied heavily on surveillance, including phone records and recorded conversations. Phone records allegedly show that Krasniqi called Fteja shortly before Fteja contacted the juror.<\/p>\n
In subsequent recorded conversations between Fteja and Krasniqi, the two allegedly discussed payment arrangements. <\/p>\n
The FBI also recorded a meeting at Krasniqi\u2019s home where all three defendants were present and allegedly discussed the $100,000 cash payment plan in both Albanian and English. An FBI linguist later translated the Albanian portions.<\/p>\n
3. Massive international cocaine trafficking trial<\/p>\n
The trial at the center of the bribery allegation involves former heavyweight boxer Goran Gojic, who is accused of helping organize an international cocaine trafficking ring. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors claim the operation moved large quantities of cocaine from South America to Europe and the United States. <\/p>\n
Authorities seized nearly 20,000 kilograms of cocaine from three shipments connected to the operation in 2019, highlighting the high-stakes nature of the trial that the defendants were allegedly trying to corrupt.<\/p>\n
4. Escalating plan<\/p>\n
The bribery attempt was not a one-time offer but an escalating plan that unfolded over several days. According to the complaint, Fteja first met with the juror and then met with them again two days later, increasing the payment offer to between $50,000 and $100,000. <\/p>\n
Fteja allegedly indicated the money would come from other individuals. The scheme culminated in a meeting with all three defendants where they allegedly finalized the $100,000 cash payment plan.<\/p>\n
5. Trial delayed, anonymous jury<\/p>\n
The alleged jury tampering has directly impacted the judicial process for the narcotics case. As a result of the bribery attempt, Gojic\u2019s trial has been postponed for 30 days. <\/p>\n
In a significant move to protect the proceedings from further influence, prosecutors announced that a new, anonymous jury will be selected. Following the arrests, Fteja was released on a $150,000 bond, while Krasniqi and Kupa were ordered to be detained.<\/p>\n
![\"Brooklyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7NR42LXCY5BK3ORTV25YCINECQ.JPG\")
Mustafa Fteja, 54; Valmir Krasniqi, 35 and Afrim Kupa, 52, face charges of corruptly attempting to influence a juror and obstructing the administration of justice.(Advance\/SILive.com | Joseph Ostapiuk)<\/p>\n
Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story. It was reviewed and edited by Advance\/SILive.com staff.<\/p>\n
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Federal authorities arrested three Staten Island men Monday for allegedly attempting to bribe a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[25489,25490,25491,25492,25493,9,24,63,25494,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-44325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-25489","tag-box-abend","tag-boxen","tag-dezember","tag-eos1dmkii-237444","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-schwergewicht","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}