Ringleader of Minnesota fraud gets 41 years in prison
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesAimee Bock, who led a fraud that bilked the government of nearly a quarter-billion dollars, was sentenced Thursday to more than 41 years in prison.
Bock ran Feeding Our Future, which was supposed to help needy kids in the Minneapolis area get meals during the pandemic. It paid out $243 million to businesses that claimed to be serving tens of thousands of children a day, but were in fact pocketing almost all of the money — and paying Bock kickbacks to keep the cash flowing.
“This is a vortex of fraud, and you were at the epicenter,” Judge Nancy Brasel told Bock at the sentencing, according to the Minnesota Star-Tribune.
While Bock is White, most of those involved in the scam were connected to the Somali immigrant community. The scam drew attention to a larger universe of fraud in Minnesota, much of it also tied to the Somali community.
Bock had asked the judge to sentence her to time served.
The Justice Department has suggested a 50-year sentence.
Bock was convicted at trial and belatedly tried to take responsibility.
“I understand I failed. I failed the public, my family, everyone,” she said Thursday in court.
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But she has also argued that she was not fully responsible for the fraud. In her sentencing memo to the judge this week, she insisted much of the money did actually go to meals. She said she tried to flag fraud for state officials who administered the meals program but was ignored, and she said whatever fraud did exist in her program was tacitly approved by those state officials who signed her payments.
Judge Brasel, though, found that Bock lied at trial about her financial activities and her central role at Feeding Our Future.
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Stephen Dinan
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