MINNEAPOLIS — The first seven defendants in what federal prosecutors call the nation's largest case of pandemic-era fraud go on trial starting Monday in Minneapolis.
Prosecutors have charged a total of 70 people associated with an organization known as "Feeding Our Future" who are accused of bilking the federal government out of $250 million distributed to feed underserved children when schools were shut down by COVID in 2020 and 2021. Instead, the government alleges, the defendants lied about the number of meals they distributed, instead collecting millions to buy luxury vehicles, homes and exotic vacations, among other things.
The initial trial involves an operation in Shakopee, where Abdiaziz Farah and Mohamed Ismail claimed to serve millions of meals to kids in 2020 and 2021. Court documents say the men operated out of a strip mall and a business called "Empire Cusine and Market, listing serving sites that included an empty parking lot and derelict commercial property in Shakopee.
But instead of providing meals for needy children, prosecutors say, the defendants and their accomplices procured $30 million in federal funds they were not entitled to. Filings indicate the defendants supported their scheme with fake attendance sheets filled with kids' names like "Man Sincere," "Ron Donald," and "John Doe."
“This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger when initial charges were announced in the Feeding Our Future scandal. “These defendants exploited a program designed to provide nutritious food to needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they prioritized their own greed, stealing more than a quarter of a billion dollars in federal funds to purchase luxury cars, houses, jewelry and coastal resort property abroad."
Attorneys for the defendants say they did not knowingly defraud the government.
This trial is expected to last approximately two months. A number of defendants in the case have already entered guilty pleas, and federal prosecutors anticipate that others will watch how the first trial comes out before deciding whether they will plead guilty as well.
At the center of the scheme, court documents say, is Feeding Our Future founder and executive director Aimee Bock. Indictments charge Bock with overseeing a massive fraud scheme carried out by sites under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship. Prosecutors say Feeding Our Future went from receiving and disbursing approximately $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to approximately $250 million in 2021.
Bock and Feeding Our Future employees allegedly recruited individuals and organizations to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites across Minnesota that fraudulently claimed to serve thousands of meals within days or weeks of being established. Authorities say the defendants then created shell companies to enroll in the program to both receive and launder federal money.
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