Key figure in Minnesota fraud case gets nearly 42 years in prison

Body

A federal judge in Minneapolis on Thursday sentenced Aimee Bock, the former head of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, to nearly 42 years in prison, saying her case involved a sweeping fraud that prosecutors said totaled $250 million. In court, the 45-year-old Bock acknowledged wrongdoing, saying, “I understand I failed. I failed the public, my family, everyone.”

Prosecutors have framed the case as a large-scale abuse of pandemic-era federal food aid. The U.S. Justice Department said Feeding Our Future was at the center of what it described as “the single largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country,” after investigators concluded the operation fed into reimbursement claims rather than legitimate meal deliveries.

The scheme arose as COVID-19 changed how the federal program worked. The program, which typically relied on schools, shifted in ways that allowed restaurants to participate and expanded food distribution beyond school sites, federal officials said. Prosecutors said Feeding Our Future recruited people to create distribution sites across Minnesota, with reimbursement requests following quickly.

At trial, prosecutors said the Feeding Our Future network included partner organizations, phony distribution locations, kickbacks, and fake lists of children tied to the reimbursement process. A witness testified at trial that, “Aimee was a god,” while federal investigators said the broader network enriched itself through what they described as lavish spending, including travel, real estate, and luxury vehicles.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel told Bock during the hearing that the case had become a “vortex of fraud” in which Bock was at the “epicenter.” Bock, who had maintained her innocence before the conviction, had been found guilty of conspiracy, fraud and bribery, according to the government’s account of the case.

Authorities also announced charges in a separate wave of alleged fraud involving federal payments administered through Minnesota’s state government. The FBI said one defendant, described as a man accused in the new batch of cases, jumped from a fourth-floor balcony to avoid arrest. After the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said the government would seek repayment, adding, “We will claw back every dollar you have stolen from the American people,” and said the government sent more prosecutors and agents to Minnesota this year.

The AP report also connected the fraud cases to a broader political push on immigration enforcement during the Trump administration. It said President Donald Trump initially used the Feeding Our Future case and others to justify a surge of federal agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to target immigrants, which the report said led to confrontations between residents and officers and to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

In addition to Bock’s sentencing, the federal case has included lengthy terms for other defendants, including a co-defendant sentenced last August to 28 years. Abdiaziz Farah claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children each day, investigators said, but prosecutors said the sites he used were parking lots or empty commercial space. Bock’s attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, argued for far less time, saying Bock had provided key information to investigators and that other co-defendants bore greater responsibility for operating the scams.

State auditors, according to the AP report, found that Minnesota’s Department of Education received numerous complaints about Feeding Our Future but often told the organization to police itself. In January, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said he would not run for reelection after Trump’s comments about theft and fraud in programs that rely on federal cash. The report also noted that Trump, who has derided Somalis, blasted Minnesota as “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” and posted statements about sending Somali gangs back.

The latest chapter of investigations, according to prosecutors, continues to expand beyond the nonprofit case. In a fresh batch of criminal cases filed this week in Minnesota, the government said alleged fraud involved $90 million across seven state-managed Medicaid programs, including allegations involving reimbursement for services tied to people who did not make required copayments, alleged housing subsidies for services that were not provided, and allegations tied to billing for autism therapy that investigators said was unnecessary or not provided. Minnesota’s Department of Human Services said it helped build the cases, and Inspector General James Clark said payments to more than 600 providers have been halted since 2025 because of fraud allegations.