The owner of a tutoring nonprofit and husband of a restaurateur testified Thursday that both he and his wife committed fraud under the direction of former Feeding Our Future Executive Director Aimee Bock.
Mohamed Hussein previously admitted to stealing $3.1 million in federal child nutrition funds through the nonprofit Somali American Faribault Education.
“[Bock] was saying, ‘If you do 1,000 meals every day, you’re going to get more money, you’re going to get [a] big check, you’re going to benefit,’” he testified. “She was saying, ‘You’re going to live [the] American Dream.’”
Mohamed Hussein, 55, said Lido Restaurant, owned by his wife, only has nine tables and served nothing close to this number.
But Bock knew she was instructing him and his wife, Lul Ali, to commit fraud, he testified. For 10 months, Mohamed Hussein and Lul Ali would typically get $200,000 each month for their participation in the fraud, he testified.
“Even doctors and lawyers don’t get $200,000 checks,” Mohamed Hussein testified. “[Bock] knows this is a lie.”
In exchange for enrollment in the federal child nutrition programs, Bock and her employee at Feeding Our Future, Abdikerm Eidleh, would demand monthly kickbacks totalling roughly $60,000, half of which had to be paid in cash, Mohamed Hussein testified.
Though his voice never cracked, Mohamed Hussein often used a tissue to wipe tears from his eyes when speaking about his regret in participating in what is estimated to be the nation’s largest COVID fraud scheme.
“I couldn’t stop myself, I don’t know why,” Mohamed Hussein said. “The money was real, but I made a big mistake. I became greedy.”
He also blamed Bock. “She ruined my life,” he said. “She destroyed me and my family.”
Bock is on trial as the alleged ringleader of a $250 million fraud scheme. The alleged fraud involved Feeding Our Future receiving federal funds through the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).
Feeding Our Future then distributed those funds to food vendors and food sites, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several organizations reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did, or simply never served any at all, in order to receive more federal reimbursement dollars, according to prosecutors.
All of the instructions from Bock came from her when she was on Facetime calls with Abdikerm Eidleh, Mohamed Hussein testified. Abdikerm Eidleh would visit Mohamed every month to collect the kickback, and when he did, he would call Bock on the Facetime app and tell her that he had collected the money, Mohamed testified.
Bock’s attorney Kenneth Udoibok cast doubt on this narrative, getting Mohamed Hussein to reveal that he only met Bock in person once at the Feeding Our Future office.
Through questioning Mohamed Hussein, Udoibok also confirmed that Abdikerm Eidleh never confirmed with him whether he gave the alleged kickback payments to Bock.
Mohamed Hussein and Lul Ali, who live in Faribault, first got involved in the child nutrition programs in mid-2020 using Lul Ali’s Lido Restaurant. They both pleaded guilty earlier in the case.
Lul Ali testified earlier this month in the Bock trial. After several months, Bock and Abdikerm Eidleh told the married couple that for-profit restaurants could no longer participate in the food program, but nonprofits could. She asked the couple whether they could enroll a nonprofit instead.
Mohamed Hussein, who worked as a cultural liaison for immigrant students at a high school in Waseca, had been operating his own tutoring nonprofit Somali American Faribault Education (SAFE) for more than a decade. He decided to enroll SAFE in the food program with Feeding Our Future at the time he alleges Bock told him to switch to a nonprofit.
Soon, SAFE was claiming to serve twice as many meals each day as Lido Restaurant. Mohamed Hussein then listed Lido Restaurant as SAFE’s food vendor. He alleges that Bock instructed him to create fake food invoices. Prosecutors showed a fake invoice that Mohamed Hussein sent to a vendor claiming to purchase tens of thousands of pounds of sugar for $12,000 as an example.
“Aimee told us if you create invoices, you get more money,” Mohamed Hussein testified. “Feeding Our Future will pay us more if we submit more invoices.”
Udoibok, during cross examination, noted that Bock’s signature was not on any of the fake invoices.
Mohamed Hussein also spoke of attending a meeting at Feeding Our Future’s office in which several food site operators were present.
“Aimee said: ‘Don’t buy cars, don’t buy houses, you become obvious,’” Mohamed Hussein said.
“Is it not good to use food money to buy houses and cars?” Udoibok asked during cross examination, to which prosecutors objected that it misstated Mohamed Hussein’s testimony and Brasel sustained.
Mohamed Hussein, who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1999 and had no criminal history, said he is “devastated” that he participated in the fraud scheme.
“I feel bad lying to the government,” he said. “It’s not something you can do to the American people, to get their money … I’m sorry.”
Also testifying Thursday was John Senkler, who was listed as the secretary of Feeding Our Future’s board. Senkler, a lifelong bartender and restaurant worker, said he didn’t realize he was on Feeding Our Future’s board until news of the federal investigation broke in 2022. During that time, his name appeared in a news report as on the organization’s board.
“My friend was mad at me,” Senkler said about how he first heard he was on the board. “She wanted to know what kind of trouble I was getting into.”
Senkler is the third person listed on Feeding Our Future’s board to testify in trial that they had no idea about their supposed role at the nonprofit. Senkler said he knew Bock as a customer at his bar, and during one summer 2016 delivered food to kids for her. Around that time Bock asked him if he was willing to serve on the board of a new nonprofit she was creating.
At first he said he thought she was joking. But Bock told him she just needed names to get the nonprofit incorporated, and that when she actually ramped up operations she would dissolve the board and appoint a new one.
“Sure,” Senkler said he told her.
Senkler said this was the last time he talked to Bock. Prosecutors showed him several internal Feeding Our Future documents claiming that Senkler attended board meetings, which included him making motions to update the nonprofit’s management plan.
“I don’t even know what a motion is,” Senkler testified.
He said when news broke about the scandal he texted Bock to ask her what was going on. Bock texted back that she would contact him soon, but never did, he testified.
“It’s kind of crappy, you know,” Senkler said about his name being used in Feeding Our Future’s operations.
The trial resumes next Monday, and prosecutors expect to wrap up their case Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s unclear whether Bock or Salim Said, the Safari Restaurant co-owner also on trial, will testify or call their own witnesses.
