Prosecutors want 50 years in prison for Aimee Bock for Feeding Our Future fraud

Jeffrey Meitrodt, Star Tribune on May 18, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — Aimee Bock should spend 50 years in prison for coordinating the biggest pandemic-era fraud in the U.S., according to a court filing made today by Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.

Bock was convicted last year of using her nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, to help steal $250 million from a federally funded program aimed at providing meals to poor children.

“The brazen and staggering nature of her crimes has shaken Minnesota to its core, leaving lasting damage and eroding public trust,” Rosen said in the filing. “Her actions have permanently altered the state, and not for the better.”

Bock’s sentencing will take place Thursday. Her attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, said he will be filing his sentencing recommendation Monday evening.

Feeding Our Future was a “sponsor,” overseeing paperwork and federal reimbursements to nearly 300 food-distribution sites in the program. It quickly grew from receiving about $3 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021.

Prosecutors said some of the nonprofit’s employees, food sites and vendors were involved in an extraordinary pay-for-play scheme of kickbacks and bribes, relying on fake attendance sheets and phony invoices to inflate the number of meals they claimed to serve and raking in millions of dollars.

Bock told jurors she rarely looked at the inflated reimbursement claims and falsified invoices that were central to the scheme. She maintained she trusted her employees to handle that work properly and was betrayed when some of her employees approved fraudulent claims in exchange for six-figure kickbacks.

“I didn’t have a clue,” Bock testified when asked about an employee’s enrichment scheme.

Prosecutors said Bock’s “willful blindness” was not a defense, noting she personally confirmed the accuracy of millions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent payments when she submitted payment requests to state regulators. Prosecutors argued the fraud perpetuated by many of her meal providers was so obvious that anybody would have spotted it — especially someone such as Bock who has years of experience with government-funded meal programs.

“The Court must send a clear and unequivocal message to Bock and to anyone who might believe they can exploit state and federal safety net programs that such conduct will be met with the strongest possible consequences,” Rosen said in the Monday filing. “Stealing funds intended to feed children is a profound breach of trust that demands accountability.”

Of the 79 individuals charged with defrauding the federal government, 65 have been convicted, with the longest sentence going to Abdiaziz Shafii Farah. Farah, owner of Empire Cuisine in Shakopee, was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being convicted on 23 counts including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.

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