She Told Me To Do It | Minnesota | Covid-19 Fraud

Historically, the Federal Child Nutrition program provided meals to children in school-based programs or activities. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to provide meals to all children during the health crisis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allowed for-profit restaurants to also participate in the program as off-site food distributions centers. However, in September 2022, the Department of Justice announced federal charges against over 100 people in a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited the Federal Child Nutrition program, all while not serving a meal. The defendants’ involvements and fraudulently gained proceeds varies amongst each other, but one thing is clear: all of them say, “Aimee Bock told me to do it.”

Aimee Bock was the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit organization that was already a sponsor participating in the Federal Child Nutrition Program. In 2019, Feeding Our Future received about $3.4 million in federal funds for meals delivered to children. But in 2020, Bock changed the business model and recruited almost 70 individuals to open supposed meal distribution sites under the sponsorship of her organization. In 2021, Feeding our Future received about $200 million in federal funds…yet no meals were served.

Under Bock’s leadership, these sites fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed. Bock created and submitted false documentation to the Minnesota Department of Education, including fraudulent meal counts consisting of fake attendance rosters purporting to list the names and ages of the children receiving meals at the sites each day. Bock would then disburse the fraudulently obtained funds to all the co-conspirators involved in the scheme and her own shell companies that she had enrolled in the program.

On March 21, 2025, Bock was found guilty.

The case is the result of an investigation by the FBI, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Minnesota non-profit leader convicted of pilfering $250M meant for underserved children in country’s largest COVID fraud scheme” published by the New York Post on March 21, 2025.

The founder of a Minnesota-based charity was convicted Wednesday of hatching a brazen ruse that pilfered close to $250 million in pandemic relief funds from a federal program meant to feed hungry children in need – in what prosecutors said was the nation’s largest COVID-19 fraud scheme.

Aimee Bock, the 44-year-old founder of Feeding our Future, was found guilty on federal charges of wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy for recruiting a network of people and organizations to operate as many as 250 fraudulent meal assistance sites throughout the state, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.