The linchpin of the “Feeding Our Future” fraud in Minnesota, Aimee Bock, has received a 41-year sentence:

Aimee Bock, 45, was handed the stiff sentence on Tuesday after being convicted of all counts last March – prosecutors describing her as the “ringleader” of the biggest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country.

Most of the other defendants in the case are Somali immigrants, and the recipients of the aid were meant to be members of the Somali community in Minnesota.

Bock and her convicted co-defendant, Salim Said, falsely claimed to have served 91 million meals, and used the quarter-billion dollars in federal funds to bankroll their lavish lifestyles, Acting US Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick said at the time of their convictions.

Bock used the ill-gotten funds to buy opulent cars, including a Porsche Panamera, which range in price from around $110,000 to over $230,000, as well as some 60 laptops, iPads and iPhones, a diamond necklace, bracelet and earrings and designer handbags.

I originally wrote about the case in March of 2025. As far as I can determine, Salim Said has yet to be sentenced.

In related news, fifteen more people are charged with fraud in Minnesota:

Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, said:

“… Our cases today involve seven different state managed Medicaid programs that have been systematically pilfered by fraudsters who treated Minnesota-run programs as their personal piggy bank.

“One of the programs has been completely shut down because there’s no money left. It’s all gone. That was Minnesota state-run housing stabilization services program designed to help the homeless find and maintain housing. It was estimated in 2020 that it would cost only about $2.5 million a year to fund this program, but it ended up costing almost 50 times that much, over $104 million by 2024 due to fraud. And because of all the fraud, Minnesota had to shut the program ,,,”

Fifty times as much as expected, and it took them all this time to indict the culprits despite the obvious nature of the fraud.

None of the articles I found listed more than a few names of those charged (for example, this), but the ones listed seemed to be of Somalis. This is in accord with earlier reports, which stated that Somalis were very heavily represented among the fraudsters.

[NOTE: Before her sentencing, Bock said of Ilhan Omar:

“I struggle to believe that she wouldn’t have known.”

I consider that fairly cryptic and I take it to mean she had nothing specific to implicate Omar, and if she did have it she would have revealed it. She went on to say more:

Bock has consistently denied knowingly participating in the fraud and insisted she tried to warn state officials. Her group would review the reimbursement paperwork sent by the local restaurants supposed to provide meals, send them out and then distribute the federal funds to them.

“The notion that I’m personally responsible for all of it . . . is so frustrating. I’m the only white person out of 80 or 90 individuals [charged in the fraud]. I’m the only one that doesn’t speak the language,” she added.

Omar was instrumental in loosening the laws that set the stage for the scheme — first by introducing the MEALS Act to Congress in March 2020, which allowed the US Department of Agriculture to issue waivers of school-meal requirements during the pandemic.

I don’t know the details of the evidence against Bock, but my guess is that it was pretty strong, including the luxury items she purchased.