Feeding Our Future’s former executive director, Aimee Bock, testified Wednesday that her nonprofit vetted food sites and vendors for potential fraud and rejected several of them.
Yet the nonprofit still allegedly allowed $250 million of fraud to occur on its watch, according to prosecutors.
Bock, who is on trial as the fraud’s alleged leader, spoke calmly and confidently throughout the day while under direct questioning from her attorney, Kenneth Udoibok. She maintained eye contact with jurors and frequently used her hands while testifying for the second day; she first took the witness stand last Friday before resuming Wednesday morning.
Prosecutors prevented Udoibok from showing the jury several internal Feeding Our Future documents that the defense believes supports her case against the allegations. Udoibok attempted to introduce the documents in the presence of jurors, prompting the prosecution’s objections.
The presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, at one point excused the jury so she and attorneys could discuss the matter outside of their hearing.
On the grounds of hearsay, Brasel rejected documents like Bock’s apparent internal plan to manage Feeding Our Future’s explosive growth during the COVID pandemic, the list of food sites it terminated and the names of internal employees who Bock said staffed several food sites at restaurants.
Outside of the presence of the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson argued that all of these documents were untrustworthy, calling them “fake business documents” and “fake records created in the course of the fraud investigation to cover up the fraud scheme.”
Bock is charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and bribery. Prosecutors allege that she and 69 other defendants stole $250 million in federal food-aid money meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bock allegedly made $1.9 million in the fraud, partially by paying her boyfriend roughly $900,000 for alleged maintenance work on Feeding Our Future’s office. She also allegedly took a $310,000 kickback in exchange for enrolling a nonprofit into the federal food program.
Brasel also expressed concerns about Udoibok’s documents outside of the presence of the jury.
“The continued attempt to admit clearly inadmissible documents gives the jury the impression that we’re hiding documents, but we’re not,” Brasel said, emphasizing that she was following federal court rules. “It doesn’t look good to the jury that I’m saying sustained, sustained, sustained.”
Udoibok defended his approach, denying that he was intentionally submitting documents he knew wouldn’t be allowed to be shown to the jury.
“I have a strategy to present this case. I will allow counsel to object,” Udoibok said. “If there is an objection that is sustained, I am not being disrespectful to the court.”
Bock is being jointly tried with Salim Said, who formerly co-owned Safari Restaurant, one of Feeding Our Future’s largest food sites.
Bock testified Wednesday that she terminated about 50 food sites and at least six vendor contracts.
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 never served any at all, in order to receive more federal reimbursement dollars, according to prosecutors.
Bock described several investigations into food sites she found suspicious. In one case, Bock said, she and one of her employees sat in the parking lot outside of a food site that she suspected of fraud and monitored it for two hours. She said she confronted the people operating the food site, and said that the people later canceled their contract with Feeding Our Future when they learned that Feeding Our Future was going to terminate their contract.
Bock also said she made an unannounced visit at a meal distribution site in Burnsville and was shocked by the lack of food and how poorly health protocols were being followed. She then moved to terminate contracts with the vendor, Empire Market and Cuisine.
“It didn’t meet Feeding Our Future standards; it didn’t meet food program regulations,” Bock said.
Bock added that she grew suspicious of and denied an additional 100 food site applications.
Bock said she began some of her investigations after seeing obviously fraudulent meal counts.
“I was honestly shocked and truthfully kind of annoyed that someone would submit such ridiculous claims,” Bock said of one case. “The invoices were clearly fraudulent.”
She said she was frustrated that her work to cut down on fraud didn’t result in consequences for problem sites that often went on to participate in the food program through other sponsors.
“All my investigations didn’t matter to anyone,” she said.
Bock denies kickback, explains jewelry
Bock also testified Wednesday about evidence prosecutors presented earlier at her trial. In some of the more compelling testimony against Bock, former Brava Cafe operator Hanna Marekegn said Bock demanded a $1.5 million cash payment in exchange for Feeding Our Future submitting a reimbursement claim for $3.15 million. Bock said that testimony was false.
Hanna Marekegn pleaded guilty in October 2022 to stealing more than $7 million in the case. She testified that she submitted a $3.15 million reimbursement claim for meals supposedly served at a Brooklyn Center food shelf. Bock told her the number was too high, Hanna Marekegn testified, and after some arguments, the two agreed to meet at a northeast Minneapolis coffee shop.
According to Hanna Marekegn’s testimony, Bock asked her not to bring her phone to the meeting, and said Feeding Our Future would only submit the claim if Bock received half the money in cash.
Bock testified that the meeting never happened, and that the data entry system used by the state would never have allowed the claim to be approved or even submitted. Bock said she terminated the contract with Brava Cafe and the food shelf, House of Refuge.
“I did not meet with her,” Bock said.
Udoibok walked Bock through photos the prosecution presented at trial that showed piles of cash and jewelry FBI agents found in her bedroom when they raided her home in February 2022.
Bock offered explanations: She inherited a gold bracelet from her grandmother, she bought a $20 necklace from a homeless man in a garage, and a gold chain spelling out her name in cursive was a gift from someone she worked with about a decade ago.
The cash in her nightstand was a stockpile her family used for random fun outings, and other cash in the room was from payments made to her consulting business, she testified.
Bock also addressed the $900,000 Feeding Our Future paid her boyfriend, saying that it was for work at the nonprofit’s office in St. Anthony, which expanded from two offices to a full floor of a building. The office’s floors were redone, ceiling work was needed and a new kitchen was added, she said.
“Feeding our Future went through significant renovations,” Bock said.
Asked by her attorney why she couldn’t hire another company to do the work, Bock said the elevator at the office building was broken and that no other contractors “would touch the job.”
Bock will resume her testimony Thursday morning under questioning from her attorney. Prosecutors will have an opportunity to cross-examine her after the defense completes its questioning.
