Fear and anxiety gripped many within Feeding Our Future as FBI agents closed in on the organization as the alleged center of a multi-million fraud, according to testimony Thursday.
“They [Feeding Our Future employees] strongly believe you are doing fraud and you are not answering their questions,” Feeding Our Future employee Norma Acosta Lopez wrote in an email to the nonprofit’s executive director, Aimee Bock, on December 14, 2021. “So many questions people are afraid to ask because no one wants to question the boss … but I feel like this needs to be asked.”
Lopez’s email continued: “You’d be surprised who turned on you if you don’t already know.”
Bock is on trial in federal court for her alleged role in stealing an estimated $250 million from the U.S. government that was meant to feed children. The latest revelations of the nonprofit’s internal discord came on the fourth day of testimony in a trial expected to last through February.
Lopez’s email was sent one month before FBI agents raided Feeding Our Future’s office and about a dozen other properties associated with the nonprofit. FBI Special Agent Jared Kary testified Wednesday that the January 2022 raids were the largest law enforcement operation in state history.
Kary took the witness stand again Thursday, testifying about an internal Feeding Our Future meeting that occurred around the time of Lopez’s email and shortly before the raid. Kary said that the meeting happened at the nonprofit’s St. Anthony office.
“There was a meeting where she [Bock] told people to stop flaunting their money, because it’s [the fraud] going to be exposed if they do,” Kary testified.
The meeting was attended by Feeding Our Future staff and some of the people who ran food sites that received federal food-aid dollars through Feeding Our Future, Kary said. Bock and staff discussed getting money for legal fees and had “a discussion about getting in trouble,” Kary said.
He added that he learned about the meeting through interviews with witnesses, and that he was told there is a recording of the meeting, which he hasn’t seen.
Kary testified about the meeting under cross-examination from Bock’s lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok. Udoibok asked Kary whether Bock disregarded the concerns in Lopez’s email, eliciting the information.
Udoibok has said Bock tried to stop the fraud but was deceived by fraudsters and ignored by the state. He highlighted other passages in Lopez’s email, which indicated that she worked in claims for Feeding Our Future. Claims refer to the number of meals Feeding Our Future reported to the federal government in order to receive financial reimbursement. Lopez is not charged in the case.
“i (sic) feel like everyone is in it for the wrong reasons and nobody cares about the workers that work here and will lose a good job just because someone was hurt and instead of staying and fighting it the right way they rather be petty about things,” said one passage Udoibok focused on.
Udoibok asked Kary what Lopez meant by “staying and fighting.”
Kary said he believed Feeding Our Future employees were leaving the organization because they were fearful the FBI was going to raid them.
Udoibok asked Kary whether Lopez’s email specifically contained fraud allegations against Bock.
Yes, Kary said, pointing to a passage where Lopez wrote “you are pre-paying people and having a go fund me (sic).” The GoFundMe likely referred to an online fundraiser Bock started in October 2021 for Feeding Our Future II, a second organization she had incorporated earlier that year.
The GoFundMe raised tens of thousands of dollars from people running food sites that received federal food-aid money through Feeding Our Future, including Salim Said, who donated $6,000. Salim Said, the former co-owner of Safari Restaurant, is being jointly tried with Bock.
The Minnesota Department of Education allocated the federal food-aid money to Feeding Our Future, which distributed it further to food vendors and food sites like Safari, which were supposed to feed ready-to-eat meals to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several organizations reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did — or simply never served any meals at all — in order to receive more federal money, according to prosecutors. Those funds were then allegedly passed through various shell companies before being pocketed by the defendants, who used the money to buy cars, property and other items.
Bock told Sahan Journal in 2022 that she started Feeding Our Future II to explore whether she could open food sites outside of Minnesota. At the time, she said she was raising funds for a savings account for the new organization. She shut the fundraiser down shortly after the FBI raids.
Udoibok also highlighted a passage in Lopez’s email that read “they [would] rather take you to court than sitting down and having an honest conversation.”
“Is it possible that this email is regarding Feeding Our Future sites that Ms. Bock turned in, and they were just mad?” Udoibok asked Kary.
Kary responded that he didn’t know.
“Is it possible these are just people who have a gripe, but don’t have the guts to talk to her?” Udoibok later asked.
Prosecutors objected to the question; U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sustained the objection.
Udoibok highlighted another part of Lopez’s email that read, “I really hope you understand what i (sic) am telling you and understand if you say anything about this right away they will know i (sic) told you, i (sic) will make this place extremely difficult to work in.”
“Was that a threat?” Udoibok asked Kary, prompting a successful objection from prosecutors.
Bock is charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and bribery, and three counts of wire fraud.
She is accused of taking just over $1 million for herself by contracting with her boyfriend for maintenance work on Feeding Our Future’s office for $900,000. She also allegedly took a $310,000 kickback in exchange for enrolling a nonprofit into the federal food-aid program.
Salim Said is charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He also faces four counts each of money laundering, wire fraud and federal programs bribery.
Federal prosecutors have charged 70 people in the case. Thirty-four defendants have pleaded guilty; five were convicted in a trial held last year.
Bock and Salim Said’s trial resumes at 9 a.m. Tuesday, February 18.
