Feeding Our Future by the numbers: 4.4M documents, 90M meal claims and 1,200 subpoenas
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Jurors in the Feeding Our Future trial learned Wednesday about the enormous scope of the investigation and the scale of the alleged fraud.
Aimee Bock, who founded and was executive director of the now-defunct nonprofit is on trial with Salim Said, a co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis.
The two are among 70 defendants charged in the wider case, and are accused of playing key roles in what federal prosecutors say was a $250 million scheme to defraud government child nutrition programs during the pandemic.
FBI agent Jared Kary testified that the search of the nonprofit’s headquarters, Bock’s and Said’s homes, and two dozen other Twin Cities locations in January 2022 was the single largest law enforcement operation in Minnesota history and required the help of agents from around the country.
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“Agents from as far as Miami came up. It was the coldest day of the year, so they weren’t very happy,” Kary quipped at the start of nearly four hours of questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Ebert.
Kary, who also testified at length in the first Feeding Our Future trial in 2024, said that investigators seized more than $50 million worth of vehicles and real estate. They requested 1,200 grand jury subpoenas for emails and other information, primarily from Google accounts, and combed through 4.4 million pages of financial documents.
The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office said authorities have recovered an estimated $66 million in assets since the start of the investigation.
Ebert showed jurors a spreadsheet listing 299 purported meal distribution sites that operated under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship. The owners of these sites allegedly claimed to have served nearly 90 million meals in 2020 and 2021.
Kary explained that the FBI set up surveillance cameras outside a dozen of these sites in late 2020, including the former Safari Restaurant along Lake Street in Minneapolis. Said was part owner of the restaurant, and he allegedly operated a separate meal distribution site through his company, ASA Ltd., at a small deli on McKnight Road in St. Paul.
Using a split screen, Ebert displayed video and still images from these cameras alongside handwritten meal count sheets that were used to claim reimbursement from taxpayers for thousands of meals each day.
The video from Safari shows a typical winter day in Minnesota, with snow on the street and cars parked in front of the business. A sign advertised free meals for kids. But after reviewing endless hours of video from a camera mounted on a utility pole across the street, Kary said that he never saw the long lines of vehicles and people that would be expected at a restaurant that claimed to serve as many as 6,000 meals each day.
“Approximately how many individuals did you see on a typical day?” Ebert asked.
“It averaged 40 individuals, either coming in their vehicles or walking up,” Kary replied.
“Not quite 6,000? Ebert asked.
“Definitely not 6,000,” the agent replied.
On cross examination later Wednesday, Bock’s defense attorney Ken Udoibok tried to cast doubt on the FBI’s investigative techniques, and suggested that the bureau’s cameras may not have captured the delivery of bulk meals from Safari.
“Is it possible that your camera could not record food exiting Safari Restaurant through the back door?” Udoibok asked.
Kary replied that even though the FBI’s camera was aimed at the front of the restaurant, the resulting traffic from that much activity would be noticeable.
Udoibok pressed further, and asked the agent if a large truck could have picked up bulk meals from the restaurant’s rear delivery door.
“To that volume, that wouldn’t make any sense,” Kary said.