Latest news with #AimeeBock
CBS News
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Another person charged in connection to Feeding Our Future fraud investigation
New indictment in the Feeding our Future fraud scheme New indictment in the Feeding our Future fraud scheme New indictment in the Feeding our Future fraud scheme Another person has been charged in federal court tied to the largest pandemic fraud scheme in the country. In an FBI agent's 23-page affidavit, investigators say Hibo Daar used a Gmail account to carry out wire fraud in submitting falsified business records to Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors say because there were no Google servers in Minnesota, that means the fraud traveled across state lines. They also found evidence of outlandish numbers on their invoices. According to court documents, Daar's food site, Northside Wellness Center, claimed to serve 52,000 meals in the month of January 2021. Prosecutors say by April that same year, they claimed to serve 40,000 meals every week. Another vendor invoice submitted by Northside Wellness claimed they bought 3,000 gallons of milk in a single month. Last week, there was another raid at New Vision Foundation. Court documents say the nonprofit claimed to serve thousands of meals to children daily in St. Paul and Waite Park. Neighboring business owners told investigators they didn't see kids at the locations. There are no charges tied to that Saint Paul raid at this time. 44 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the Justice Department's Feeding Our Future investigation, which includes Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock. Bock's appeal remains ongoing. In all, the scheme diverted $250 million in federal funds during a time when the rules were relaxed in order to keep the U.S. economy running.
CBS News
23-05-2025
- CBS News
Federal agents raid St. Paul nonprofit as part of Feeding Our Future fraud investigation
Federal prosecutors on Friday confirmed to WCCO that agents executed a new search warrant against New Vision Foundation, a St. Paul nonprofit that allegedly schemed with Feeding Our Future and its founder Aimee Bock to defraud millions of dollars from the government. According to its website, New Vision Foundation's mission is to "create pathways to success by motivating disadvantaged youth in Minnesota through coding and digital literacy classes." Court documents accuse NVF and its owner of entering the fake meal business during COVID-19. A 44-page affidavit from Special Agent Travis Wilmer was unsealed by a federal judge on Thursday. It contains receipts, invoices and claims made by NVF that were submitted to Feeding Our Future, which then collected the reimbursements and distributed them back to NVF, along with hundreds of other vendors in its contracts. For its services, Bock and Feeding Our Future earned millions in kickbacks. Wilmer in his affidavit said NVF claimed to have served more than 3,000 meals a day, six days a week, at its St. Paul location, while also then claiming to serve 1,800 kids daily in Waite Park, Minnesota. According to Wilmer, neighboring business owners said they nary saw children in either location, and in St. Paul in particular, one business owner told investigators that children shouldn't even be in the area because it employs former convicts. Calls and emails to NVF and its owner were not returned. 70 people charged in $250 million scheme In March, a jury found Bock and co-defendant Salim Said guilty of taking tens of millions of dollars meant to feed hungry children. The jury, which deliberated for several hours, issued all guilty verdicts on multiple criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery. Bock and Said are two of 70 people charged so far in the scheme. Roughly 30 others have pleaded guilty, and five others have been convicted. Earlier this year, separate Feeding Our Future defendants admitted to witness tampering in connection with a $120,000 bribery attempt of a juror. Documents say Ladan Ali flew in from Seattle in May 2024 and followed a juror home after the first day of closing arguments, and then two days later handed a bag containing the cash to the juror's relative and told them there would be more if the juror voted to acquit all the defendants.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Keith Ellison's meeting with those involved in Feeding Our Future before FBI raids: What really happened
The Brief The nearly hour-long recording is an unused defense exhibit from Aimee Bock's federal trial. A meeting between Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and several future Feeding Our Future defendants took place in December 2021. They ask for his help dealing with alleged racist actions by state agencies. House Republicans accuse Ellison of soliciting campaign donations. The recording does not support that. Rather, he is repeatedly offered contributions and later receives them, but he never asks and deflects offers by saying this is not about his campaign. MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Item number 710 on Aimee Bock's defense exhibit list from her recent federal trial is an audio recording of a meeting with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Bock's defense attorney, Kenneth Udiobok, didn't use it during the trial because no one from Ellison's office testified for the government, therefore it was not relevant. He also didn't think it would do anything to prove Bock's innocence. But he does think it's important for what he believes it depicts. "The chief law enforcement officer of the state of Minnesota," said Udoibok, "weeks before the investigation went overt, his expression showed that he did not believe Feeding our Future or Aimee Bock was involved in any fraudulent activity." The recording doesn't necessarily suggest Ellison didn't believe fraud was occurring. ather, it sounded like he was unaware of any investigation into fraud. What we know Udoibok said he got the recording from Aimee Bock, but is not certain who recorded it. He provided a copy to FOX 9. The recording is a meeting he says took place in December 2021, just one month before the FBI raided Feeding Our Future and related properties and made their investigation public. The group included several of those who were later found guilty or pled guilty to fraud-related charges. They identified themselves as the Minnesota Minority Business Association. They begin by complaining that East African businesses are facing racism by state agencies, telling Ellison they "create unnecessary roadblocks and hurdles and at times conduct business in a very racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic manner." Ellison sympathizes and offers to make some calls, saying that "just getting the question, just getting the inquiry from the AG is sometimes enough to make people knock it off." But for the first 14 minutes of the meeting, the federal meal program is not mentioned. What happens next When the group finally gets around to the federal meal program and Feeding Our Future, Ellison is unclear what they're talking about. "And for example," one man says, "one of the biggest issues facing in our community is the CACFP and how the Department of Education…" Ellison interrupts: "Wait a minute, what is that?" "Child and Adult Care Food Program," he is told. For more than 20 minutes, they explain the food program, how the USDA funds come through the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), down to sponsors and vendors and meal sites. And they complain that MDE continues to drag their feet on approvals and reimbursements, and they want Ellison's help. Ellison expresses surprise, despite this being weeks before the FBI investigation becomes public knowledge, which the AG's office is taking part in. "I'm telling you," Ellison says, "this has not come to my attention until now, really." Repeatedly throughout the meeting, Ellison is told they want to contribute to his campaign, "putting our dollars in the right place and supporting candidates that fight to protect our interests." Ellison never asks for money. Rather, he deflects the offers by saying he's meeting with them as AG, not a candidate. "Of course, I'm here to help," he says. "Let me be clear, I'm not here because I think it's going to help my re-election." But about a week later, Ellison's campaign did receive several contributions from some of those present. Ellison later returned contributions from those who were indicted. What they're saying In the wake of the recording being made public, Minnesota House Republicans issued a statement, saying "It's disturbing to learn that Attorney General Ellison met with and offered verbal support to criminal defendants at the heart of the largest pandemic fraud scam in the country." For clarity, the meeting occurred 10 months before any indictments. When charges did come in September 2022, a news release from Ellison's office said they'd been involved in the investigation for two years. It also said the FBI had repeatedly asked that the AG and MDE not disclose the existence of the investigation to anyone so as not to tip anyone off. In a statement to FOX 9, Ellison's office said that he was unaware who he was meeting with: "AG Ellison was asked to sit down with a friend that day, Imam Mohamed Omar. When the AG arrived, he was surprised to find others present but agreed to meet with them. It is a shame that these fraudsters tried to exploit the Attorney General's good-faith engagement, but they were not successful. Nothing happened as a result of the meeting."
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Feeding our Future: Fraud trial in hands of jury for decision
The Brief The jury begins deliberations at 9am Wednesday. Full day of closing arguments on Tuesday, a little more than five weeks after opening statements. Aimee Bock is described as "at the top" of the $250 million fraud scheme, with Salim Said working with her "every step of the way and they both got rich doing it." MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs told jurors that Aimee Bock and co-defendant Salim Said "committed a fraud of epic proportions" as the trial over an alleged $250 million fraud heads to jury deliberations. Prosecution's case Jacobs spent more than two hours refreshing jurors on everything they'd heard and seen since opening statements on Feb. 10. "None of this would have been possible without Aimee Bock and Feeding Our Future," he said. She was the gatekeeper for enrolling each site. No site got approved, no claim got paid without Aimee Bock." Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, was the only person who submitted documents to the state. She was the only person authorized to write checks to participants once the USDA reimbursements came back in. The forms include a portion that attests that the information is accurate and that fraudulent submissions could lead to criminal charges. Bock is charged with wire fraud for the submissions and bribery for the alleged kickbacks, which prosecutors say was evident in money that flowed back to her in the form of handbook payments and the sale of a non-operating daycare business. "Kickbacks were the grease that made the wheels turn at Feeding Our Future," said Jacobs, telling jurors that all Bock's employees took these payments. "In exchange for what? Getting these fake, ridiculous claims submitted and paid month after month." Dig deeper Kenneth Udoibok, Aimee Bock's attorney, told jurors the whole case is about the meal counts, massive claims of serving thousands of meals every day. He argued that Bock didn't review these - her staff did. She submitted them, trusting that they'd been verified. "You cannot hold Ms. Bock responsible for someone else's actions," he said. He alleged that site operators and food vendors all developed complex systems to make verifying claims very difficult in order to trick her. He also blamed the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) for approving the claims and paying the reimbursements, leading Bock to believe there was nothing suspicious. The MDE actually tried to halt approvals just months into the program due to suspicions, but Bock fought them on the grounds they had no legal authority, which a judge agreed they did not. Said defended as 'scapegoat' Said's defense Adrian LaFavor-Montez, attorney for Salim Said, likewise painted his client as doing nothing wrong while others in the meal program, including his own partners, committed the fraud. "What the government has done is they've shown you examples of blatant fraud," he said, "and they've created a narrative from that." He showed the jury images of food being cooked and packaged at Said's Safari Restaurant, arguing they did actually serve thousands of meals a day. The FBI surveillance video shows little to no activity outside Safari: He says that was because the bulk of the meals were delivered, not picked up. Listing the multiple people who've pled guilty to food fraud already, he argued the evidence shows "that other individuals in this case took Salim Said's legitimate business model at Safari Restaurant and corrupted it." The government rebuttal showed the jury, again, the bank records of Said's various companies that showed millions of dollars coming in, but just 2 to 4% of that paid out on actual food expenses. What's next The jury begins deliberations Wednesday morning. They have a lot to consider: 23 total criminal counts, some of them against both Bock and Said, and some against them individually.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Yahoo
Feeding Our Future trial: Aimee Bock admits fraud, just not by her
The Brief Alleged Feeding Our Future ringleader Aimee Bock spent the entire day on the witness stand in her federal trial, most of it under aggressive cross-examination by the prosecution. She denied being part of a conspiracy, committing wire fraud or soliciting bribes. Bock repeatedly blamed her staff who reviewed the fraudulent meal claims, and testifying she only submitted them. MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Aimee Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, agreed that federal prosecutors have proven fraud occurred in the meal sites and vendors she sponsored. She said it was everyone else conspiring, not her. When she asked if strangely high meal claims were accurate, "they were all saying yes," she testified. "Because, as the government has been able to show, they were all in on it together." What she said Bock was pressed by a prosecutor about the meal counts and invoices that others, who have pled guilty, testified were fake. "I trusted that the staff had reviewed," she said, repeatedly putting the responsibility on employees at Feeding Our Future. When she then submitted those fraudulent claims to the state for reimbursement, she said she simply entered the data. She also signed the submissions, which included language that attested the information was accurate and that deliberate misrepresentation would subject her to prosecution. She said she did not intentionally misrepresent. "I entered the data," she said, insisting her responsibility was to ensure the forms were fully filled out and "certified that they were claimed in the right category." Dig deeper Bock also testified that she only reviewed meal counts and rosters when someone had a question about them. And for all the rosters now proven to be filled with made-up names from a website, she said she would have had no reason to suspect that because she would have no way to verify them. Asked, too, about the money transferred from Feeding Our Future to her boyfriend, she explained that was all for work done renovating her offices. As for the expensive jewelry, vacations and car rentals he paid for with federal food money proceeds, she only conceded "I was an unwilling passenger in a Lamborghini, yes." Bock returns to the stand Friday. Salim Said's defense will then call a couple of witnesses, possibly Said himself. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday.
