Aimee Bock, the mastermind behind a $250 million child nutrition fraud scheme in Minnesota, has been sentenced to 500 months in prison, or 41.5 years. She’s also been ordered to pay more than $240 million in restitution.
Bock was the executive director of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which throughout the COVID-19 pandemic siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money to several existing and bogus nonprofits while falsely reporting the number of meals served to children and adults.
Federal prosecutors had been asking for a 50-year sentence in the case, and Bock, under sentencing guidelines, could have gotten 100 years in prison.
A jury found Bock guilty last year of seven criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, and federal programs bribery.
The Scam
Feeding Our Future utilized two federal programs designed to help feed children and adults in day care and after-school programs: the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program. The organization served as the gatekeeper between the two programs and hundreds of nonprofits.
The nonprofits would submit meal counts to Feeding Our Future, which would then seek reimbursement from the federal government. However, some organizations padded the number of meals they said they were serving, and some didn’t serve any meals at all.
The Justice Department has charged nearly 80 people connected to the fraud scheme.
This story is developing and may be updated.
