A Minnesota nonprofit leader has been convicted in a $250M pandemic fraud scheme: What to know
Aimee Bock, founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, was one of 70 people charged in the case, which federal prosecutors say is one of the nation's largest pandemic-related frauds, USA TODAY reported.
Bock's co-defendant, Salim Ahmed Said, owner of the now-defunct Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, was also convicted following the joint six-week trial.
Lisa Kirkpatrick, who is Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, said in a news release that Bock and Said "falsely claimed to have served 91 million meals, for which they fraudulently received nearly $250 million in federal funds."
"That money did not go to feed kids," Kirkpatrick said. "Instead, it was used to fund their lavish lifestyles. (Wednesday's) verdict sends a message to the community that fraud against the government will not be tolerated.'
Here's more about the case, the jury's verdict and what comes next.
At trial, prosecutors explained that Feeding Our Future employees recruited people to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites across Minnesota that "fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota.
Bock and Said created and submitted fraudulent meal counts with fake attendance rosters with names and ages of children who supposedly received meals at the sites each day. Feeding Our Future submitted those documents to the Minnesota Department of Education, then disbursed the fraudulently obtained federal funds to their co-conspirators.
In total, Feeding Our Future fraudulently obtained and disbursed more than $240 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds, which the defendants used to pay for luxury vehicles, real estate and international travel.
Bock was convicted of four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.
Said was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, eight counts of bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five counts of money laundering.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered Bock and Said to be held without bail ahead of their sentencing, though no date was immediately set, The Associated Press reported.
The scheme relied on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Federal Child Nutrition Program, which provides meals to children in need. The program, which expanded during the pandemic, let for-profit restaurants run federally funded food distribution sites as long as a nonprofit organization sponsored them, USA TODAY reported.
Minneapolis FBI Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. said: "Stealing from the federal government is stealing from the American people – plain and simple. The egregious fraud uncovered in the Feeding our Future case represents the blatant betrayal of public trust."
IRS Special Agent in Charge Ramsey Covington, of the Chicago Field Office, said: "This verdict is the product of dedicated investigators and prosecutors to bring accountability to those who brazenly stole from the American public. (The IRS) is deeply committed to working with our partner agencies to combat these types of fraud schemes and ensure our American tax dollars serve their intended purpose.'
Bryan Musgrove, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Denver Division, said: "The bold egregious nature in which these fraudsters victimized our children and programs intended to feed them during a worldwide pandemic illustrates their callous disregard for human decency and overall greed. This investigation is a tremendous example of how the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and our FBI law enforcement partners can work side by side in an effort to bring these fraudsters to justice.'
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: What we know about the Feeding our Future Minnesota Covid fraud scheme
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