Courtesy of Sherburne County Jail
The founder of Feeding Our Future was sentenced to over 41 years(500 months) for her role in the sprawling fraud scheme.
Aimee Bock, 45, was convicted on all counts following a more than six-week federal jury trial last year.
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Bock to 50 years in prison, while her attorney asked for either time served or a maximum of 37 months.
The former prosecution team, Joe Thompson, Harry Jacobs, Matthew Ebert and Daniel Bobier, came to watch the sentencing. Joining them were law enforcement who worked on the case, and even several jurors from the six-week trial.
Prosecutors have described Bock as the “ringleader” of the scheme to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program out of roughly $250 million — the largest pandemic-related fraud scheme in the country, according to prosecutors.
A federal judge approved the government’s request for Bock to pay $5.2 million in restitution in December.
5 INVESTIGATES reporter Eric Rasmussen questioned Bock about her role in the fraud scheme during a remote video interview earlier this week. While she expressed some regrets, Bock largely blamed others and denied knowingly committing fraud.
At least 79 people have been charged in connection to the Feeding Our Future scheme. More than 60 have been convicted, so far.
How the scheme worked
Feeding Our Future and Bock were responsible for sponsoring organizations that wanted to participate in the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
Operators of those “food sites” would get reimbursed for every meal they made and served to a child — and Feeding Our Future would collect a service fee for being a sponsor.
In a short time, Feeding Our Future went from receiving and distributing $3 million in federal aid to more than $200 million in 2021, according to investigators.
But, the vast majority of the meals logged by Feeding Our Future and its partners were fake, prosecutors say. And the names of hundreds of children who received those meals? Made up.
The investigation
The Minnesota Department of Education is responsible for handing out the federal food program funds, but when MDE first questioned the sudden spike in claims from Feeding Our Future, Bock sued the state agency and the money kept flowing.
That flood of taxpayer dollars only stopped when the FBI, IRS, and other agencies carried out a series of raids in January 2022, serving search warrants at 26 locations across Minnesota.
“I remember we took down the case on a Thursday because the following day, on a Friday, is when MDE paid out the money,” said Joe Thompson, chief prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Fraud and Public Corruption Section. “Every Friday, they paid out about $20 million.”
What’s next?
More than four years after the first charges in the scheme, prosecutors say the investigation continues, as does the effort to get back misused funds.
The cases of several defendants are still moving through the court process.
Back in December, federal prosecutors estimated that they’d recovered more than $60 million — less than a quarter of the amount of fraud. However, they noted many of the proceeds are still tied up in real estate, cars and other property, further delaying reimbursement.
