The founder of a Minnesota food program that bilked taxpayers out of $250 million has been slapped with 41 years in prison for a fraud that prosecutors say took food out of the mouths of hungry kids.
Aimee Bock, 45, was handed the stiff sentence on Tuesday after being convicted of all counts last March – prosecutors describing her as the “ringleader” of the biggest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country.
Most of the other defendants in the case are Somali immigrants, and the recipients of the aid were meant to be members of the Somali community in Minnesota.
She will also be required to pay $5.2 million in restitution.
Bock and her convicted co-defendant, Salim Said, falsely claimed to have served 91 million meals, and used the quarter-billion dollars in federal funds to bankroll their lavish lifestyles, Acting US Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick said at the time of their convictions.
Bock used the ill-gotten funds to buy opulent cars, including a Porsche Panamera, which range in price from around $110,000 to over $230,000, as well as some 60 laptops, iPads and iPhones, a diamond necklace, bracelet and earrings and designer handbags.
Investigators said Feeding Our Future went from receiving $3 million in federal aid to more than $200 million in 2021, but when the Minnesota Department of Education started asking questions about the rapid increase, Bock filed a lawsuit against the state agency, and the cash kept rolling in.
The taxpayer money was only cut off after the FBI, IRS, and other federal agencies executed raids at 26 locations across Minnesota, believed to be engaging in fraudulent activity, in January 2022. --->READ MORE HERE
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| AP |
A judge on Thursday handed down an extraordinary prison sentence — nearly 42 years — to the former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted in a staggering $250 million fraud case that helped ignite an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration.
Aimee Bock ran Feeding Our Future, which had claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children in need during the pandemic.
“I understand I failed. I failed the public, my family, everyone,” Bock said in federal court.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 50 years, saying the brazen and staggering nature of Bock's crimes has shaken Minnesota to its core, leaving lasting damage and eroding public trust.
President Donald Trump used the fraud cases against Bock and many others to initially justify a massive surge of federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area last winter, leading to a pushback by residents and the deaths of two people.
“Feeding Our Future operated like a cash pipeline, open to anyone willing to submit fraudulent claims and pay kickbacks,” prosecutors said in a court filing. “The ripple effects of her actions are profound, immeasurable, and will have lasting consequences for both Minnesota and the nation.”
Bock's attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, had asked for three years. While Bock expressed contrition and admitted to Judge Nancy Brasel she knows she's responsible, she previously denied knowing anything about the scheme and argued that two of her colleagues and the state department of education were more at fault. He argued that Bock had been unfairly painted as the mastermind and insisted that two co-defendants were responsible for running the scams.
"Because my client I have come to know, 45-years-old with two adorable children, to spend the rest of her life in prison, there's no other word than devastation," said Udoibok, who spoke to WCCO's Susie Jones.
But former interim U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Joseph Thompson, said Bock got what she deserves.
"Aimee Bock did everything she could to earn it," Thompson says. "The judge found what we all knew, which was that Feeding Our Future was entirely fraudulent. All the sites under its sponsorship were fraudulent, and she carried out the scheme, every step of the way."
At least 78 defendants have been charged in the scheme so far.
"We still maintain that much of the fraud committed by some of the sites, some of the people, was not orchestrated by Ms. Bock, was not encouraged by Ms. Bock. But you know, this is water imder the bridge," adds Udoibok.
Bock was convicted last year of multiple counts involving conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery. She had long insisted she was innocent.
"There can be no question about her guilt: after a six-week trail at which prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence that she was indeed the mastermind of the Feeding Our Future fraud, a jury of her peers found her guilty on all counts beyond a shadow of a doubt after just five hours of deliberation. This is the highest standard of proof our criminal-justice system has," wrote Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Thursday afternoon. --->READ MORE HERE
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