Feeding Our Future leader Aimee Bock testifies in her own defense
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Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock took the witness stand and testified in her own defense on Friday. Against the advice of her attorney, Bock waived her Fifth Amendment rights and subjected herself to cross examination, expected next week.
Bock is charged with seven counts, including wire fraud and federal programs bribery, for leading what the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office says was the nation’s largest COVID-related scam. Bock and 69 other defendants were charged with stealing $250 million from taxpayer-funded nutrition programs for children in need by falsely claiming reimbursement for around 90 million meals, the vast majority of which they never served.
Under questioning from her defense attorney, Bock talked about her years after college working in child care and as a substitute teacher before joining another nonprofit, Partners in Nutrition, a decade ago. She said that “differences with the other organization” led her to start Feeding Our Future.
Bock also walked jurors through Feeding Our Future’s organizational chart and explained how she recruited three board members. The men all testified earlier in the trial that they had little to no knowledge of Feeding Our Future and never attended any board meetings even though their names appeared on board minutes.
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Attorney Ken Udoibok also asked his client about Abdikerm Eidleh, who was listed on the organizational chart as a program support manager. Eidleh is also charged in the case and allegedly submitted bribes and kickbacks from fraudulent meal site operators. But prosecutors say he fled to his native Somalia in late 2021, just before the FBI raided Bock’s home and office.
Bock responded that Eidleh was a “horrible person, a former consultant” but did not elaborate.
She is expected to answer more questions from her attorney on Wednesday before lead prosecutor Joe Thompson — who’s been working on this case for three years — begins his cross examination.
Bock, 44, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis alongside Salim Said, 36, a former co-owner of Safari Restaurant. Investigators say the restaurant siphoned $16 million from public coffers by operating a phony meal distribution site in 2020 and 2021 and later operating as a phony vendor to other meal sites.
Thirty-seven people charged in the wider case have pleaded guilty since late 2022. Jurors at the first Feeding Our Future trial convicted five others in June 2024 while acquitting two defendants. Six business owners who operated meal distribution sites and food vendors that Feeding Our Future sponsored pleaded guilty and testified for the government throughout the trial.
Said faces a longer list of 21 charges. In addition to wire fraud and bribery, he also faces five money laundering counts for allegedly using food program money to buy a $1.1 million home in Plymouth, a $2.7 million mansion on Park Avenue in Minneapolis to use as office space, a new Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, and a 2021 Mercedes Benz. Said made all of the purchases in cash, FBI forensic accountant Pauline Roase testified Thursday.
In contrast to Udoibok, who gave a lengthy opening statement and extensively cross-examined government witnesses, Said’s defense team has remained largely quiet. Attorneys Michael Colich and Adrian Montez indicated in court filings that they will present a case to the jury.
On Thursday, the 14th day of prosecution testimony, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Ebert reminded jurors of the scope of the alleged fraud. On courtroom computer monitors, Ebert played a video animation showing the explosive growth in largely phony meal sites that Feeding Our Future sponsored.
From August 2018 to January 2020, the nonprofit claimed $4.2 million for 2.3 million meals. By the end of 2021, just before the FBI investigation became public, the cumulative amount had ballooned to more than $246 million.
Prosecutors contend that Bock gave Said special treatment and “prepaid” him for Safari’s meal claims in violation of food program rules. Text messages recovered from Bock’s phone that prosecutors showed jurors on Thursday revealed tension between Bock and Said after Said threatened to find another meal site sponsor when Bock said she was unable to provide an early payment.
“To be honest I’m tired of helping people with money and doing appeals to get sites approved,” Bock wrote. “Then in return I get attacked, my coworkers get attacked and my company gets attacked. No one seemed willing to recognize the lies being told and defend us. Your guy gets told not today and the response is your (sic) going to transfer? Whatever. I’ve gone above and beyond for your sites fighting for approvals and prepaying you so you didn’t have to worry about money. But you believe another sponsor will treat you better by all means go.”
Said never made good on his threat to leave Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship. On January 20, 2022, the day after Bock sent that text, the FBI raided her Rosemount house, Feeding Our Future’s headquarters in St. Anthony, Said’s home, and two dozen other locations. With the investigation public, the Minnesota Department of Education, which disburses federal food program funds in the state, halted all payments to Feeding Our Future.
The jury on Friday saw evidence of luxury vacations that Bock and her then-boyfriend took to Las Vegas in 2021. FBI forensic accountant Sonya Jansma, the last government witness to testify, walked jurors through bank statements from the boyfriend’s handyman business, which received $878,514 from Feeding Our Future.
Prosecutors allege that Bock disguised the cash transfers as contractor payments, and they say that she paid him an additional $124,530, bringing the total to more than $1 million. The ex-boyfriend is not charged in the case.
Prosecutor Joe Thompson showed jurors photos of the couple, recovered from Bock’s phone, posing in Las Vegas next to high-end rental cars.
The jury also saw bank statements and other documents indicating that the man paid $2,300 to rent a Lamborghini Aventador for 24 hours. The records also showed that he paid another $1,800 to rent a Rolls Royce and purchased a $3,506 Louis Vuitton backpack.
All of the money, Jansma testified, was traced to federal child nutrition program funds that originated with American taxpayers.
“There were no receipts or invoices that we were able to locate” that indicated that Bock’s friend performed any work for Feeding Our Future in exchange for the payments, the FBI accountant added.
Also on Friday, Abdinasir Abshir, a defendant in the case who was accused of attempting to intimidate a witness, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Abshir, 32, admitted that he operated a fraudulent meal site in Mankato and that on Feb. 18 he approached cooperating defendant Sharmake Jama, who was in a courthouse hallway waiting to testify, and asked to speak with him in a bathroom.
Jama refused the request and alerted his attorney, who in turn contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors say the incident was particularly troubling in light of an attempt in 2024 to bribe a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial.
Correction: A previous version of this story had an incorrect number of Feeding Our Future defendants who had pleaded guilty. The above version is updated.