The head of Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit embroiled in a massive fraud scandal involving $250 million in federal funds, asserts her innocence as she faces sentencing. Aimee Bock, 45, was convicted in March 2023 of orchestrating a scheme that fraudulently acquired federal money intended to nourish underprivileged children in the state.
Bock maintains that she is not the “mastermind” of the operation, which has drawn scrutiny towards the Somali community in Minnesota. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, she emphasized the disproportionate number of defendants charged in this case, most of whom are of Somali or Eastern African descent, while she is of a different background.
“I believe in accountability,” Bock stated during the interview. “If I had done this, I would’ve pled guilty. I wouldn’t have gone to trial. I wouldn’t have put my children and my family through what we’ve been through. I’ve lost everything.”
Despite her claims, prosecutors asserted that Bock approved “every single fraudulent claim” submitted to the state. Bock countered that she did intervene in certain instances, halting claims she believed to be fraudulent from proceeding. “I was the only one that stopped a claim and said, ‘this is fraudulent,’” she explained. “There are tens of millions of dollars in claims that we did not pay, that we refused.”
In another dimension of the case, Bock previously filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Education. She alleged that the state’s rejection of some applicants for the food program was racially motivated, further complicating the narrative surrounding her leadership.
Accusing state officials of failing to monitor participating food vendors appropriately, Bock described them as using her as a “scapegoat.” She recounted that state representatives, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, visited the sites where meal pickups were scheduled, implying that there was a collaborative effort in the operation of the program.
Bock’s situation highlights significant issues surrounding the administration of pandemic relief funds in the U.S., raising questions about oversight and accountability at multiple levels of government. As she awaits her sentencing, the implications of this case continue to resonate, particularly within the communities most affected.
The Feeding Our Future scandal has resulted in charges against 78 defendants, with over 60 individuals either convicted or having pleaded guilty. The fallout from this incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities in federal assistance programs, particularly during times of crisis.
