Trial of Aimee Bock, alleged leader of Feeding Our Future fraud, begins
MINNEAPOLIS — Testimony is underway in the trial for the alleged ringleader of the largest pandemic fraud case in the United States.
Aimee Bock was the founder of Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit accused of bilking $250 million from a federal program to feed children across Minnesota during the COVID pandemic.
Also on trial is Salim Said, who owned a restaurant that provided about 40,000 meals a week. To put that in perspective, prosecutors told jurors that's how many people are in a sold-out crowd in Target Field.
According to investigators, Bock conspired with hundreds to exploit the U.S. government's new rules for its child nutrition programs after COVID shut down schools and sent everyone home.
Feeding Our Future allegedly recruited all kinds of restaurants and catering companies, which then submitted fake receipts and invoices for up to 125 million fake meals.
Aimee Bock "broke the system," federal prosecutors said in their opening statement, and "transformed her tiny nonprofit into a money making engine."
"The little food they did buy was for dressing," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Borier. "The defendants in this case saw an opportunity in crisis. From the moment they saw it, they went all the way."
Bock is one of 70 charged in the scheme. Thirty other defendants have already pleaded guilty and five others were convicted.
Bock's attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, told jurors she'll fight the charges till the end.
"She's been in nonprofit all her life. She was never in the business of making money," Udoibok said. "You'll see the lies. The Minnesota Department of Education refused to take responsibility for their failures."
Said also pleaded not guilty, with the first testimony on Monday coming from a postal inspector who told jurors about the thousands of documents recovered at the nonprofit's offices.
The trial is expected to last up to a month. The judge has ordered extra measures to hide jurors' identities in this case.
In a previous trial, five people were arrested and charged with trying to bribe a juror.
