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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – No case in Minnesota’s sprawling fraud scandal captures the dimensions of taxpayer abuse just like the Feeding Our Future scheme, through which this system’s director signed off on sham meal companies for the poor solely to have the boys round her splurge on mansions, luxurious automobiles and lavish existence.
Fox Information Digital has obtained the courtroom displays used at trial, together with photographs of the properties, automobiles and designer items prosecutors say had been bought with stolen federal vitamin {dollars}.
The scheme was headed by Aimee Bock, the founder and government director of Feeding Our Future, a company liable for making certain that needy youngsters didn’t go hungry in the course of the COVID pandemic.
Bock presided over a community that claimed to have served 91 million meals, for which the scammers fraudulently acquired almost $250 million in federal funds. Bock, who was convicted by a federal jury on March 19, 2025, of wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery for her function, was dubbed the scheme’s “mastermind” by federal prosecutors.
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Prosecutors say Aimee Bock, founding father of Feeding Our Future, and Salim Mentioned helped orchestrate one of many largest pandemic-relief fraud schemes in U.S. historical past. Each had been discovered responsible of diverting federal child-nutrition funds into luxurious houses, automobiles and different private spending, in accordance with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace. (Sherburne County Sheriff’s Workplace)
Bock accredited the meal websites, a few of which had been faux, after which licensed the claims, signing off on the reimbursements from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). At the least 78 individuals have now been indicted within the ongoing investigation.
Court docket displays used within the case towards Bock and Salim Mentioned, a neighborhood restaurant proprietor, captured a number of the opulent spending Mentioned splurged his ill-gotten positive aspects on.
As an illustration, Mentioned used $250,000 in stolen vitamin funds to purchase a big residence in Plymouth, whereas one other $2.7 million wire switch linked to the fraud was routed right into a Minneapolis mansion-style workplace constructing, prosecutors mentioned, that served because the headquarters for his firm, Safari Group.
The property stood in stark distinction to the daycare facilities and after-school packages the federal cash was supposed to assist.
The displays additionally confirmed that Mentioned used fraud proceeds to purchase a black 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA and a 2021 Chevy Silverado.
Mentioned operated Safari Restaurant, a small Minneapolis eatery that claimed to be serving greater than 4,000 meals per day to the poor, in accordance with federal displays, whereas his firm and co-conspirators opened further websites, in addition to dozens of shell firms, which acquired greater than $32 million in Federal Baby Vitamin Program funds, prosecutors mentioned.
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A Minneapolis property at 2722–42 Park Avenue South that prosecutors mentioned was bought with a $2.7 million wire switch tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme and used because the headquarters for Salim Mentioned’s Safari Group. (Division of Justice)
The Plymouth residence prosecutors mentioned Salim Mentioned bought utilizing a $250,000 cost traced to laundered Feeding Our Future funds. (Division of Justice)
In line with the indictment, Mentioned’s spending spree stretched far past the automobiles and homes proven within the courtroom displays — with further actual property, electronics, money transfers, restaurant buildouts and different luxurious items bought via shell firms he managed. Different members of the Safari group had been additionally accused of funneling vitamin {dollars} into luxurious automobiles and designer items.
Federal prosecutors didn’t accuse Bock of personally shopping for big-ticket gadgets with the fraud proceeds.
As a substitute, they mentioned she constructed and guarded the community that enabled others to spend the cash. The displays present she accredited the websites, signed the checks and saved investigators at bay, leaving her inside circle to splurge whereas she ran the system that made all of it doable.
The one cash motion immediately tied to Bock within the displays was an image of her making a $30,000 money withdrawal, proof, prosecutors mentioned, that she was concerned in a kickback scheme by accepting money funds from meal-site operators in alternate for website approvals and reimbursements.
A sequence of reimbursement checks she signed for alleged fraud websites had been additionally proven, proof prosecutors mentioned captured her function because the scheme’s “gatekeeper,” although not an enormous private spender.
Empress Malcolm Watson Jr., whom the Minnesota Department of Revenue describes as Bock’s boyfriend, seems in a number of the displays, together with a photograph of him inside a Rolls-Royce with Bock standing subsequent to him. He’s pictured in one other photograph standing in entrance of a Lamborghini.
Aimee Bock beside a Rolls-Royce with Empress Malcolm Watson Jr. Prosecutors mentioned the picture illustrated the life-style surrounding the community however didn’t accuse Bock of shopping for the car. (Division of Justice)
The latter exhibit additionally reveals designer luggage, jewellery and a white Mercedes-Benz — gadgets prosecutors labeled as “Helpful Helpers Spending” as an instance the lavish life-style surrounding Bock’s community. Prosecutors made no declare that Bock purchased the gadgets herself and one co-conspirator even testified that Bock warned them to not splurge, telling them that luxurious purchases would “grow to be apparent.”
Watson earned greater than $1 million for work he did as an worker of Bock’s for-profit childcare consulting enterprise, in addition to work his personal reworking firm carried out for that enterprise, in accordance with the Minnesota Division of Income. Prosecutors say Watson spent greater than $680,000 on journey, jewellery, automobiles, money withdrawals, or transfers to different accounts.
Watson has not been charged within the Feeding Our Future instances. He was charged with six tax-related felony offenses in September for allegedly underreporting his earnings for 2020 and 2021, failing to file a return for 2022 and failing to pay the earnings taxes he owed for these years. Watson allegedly owes greater than $64,000 in unpaid earnings tax. He’s at present being held within the Anoka County jail on a felony probation violation unrelated to the tax case.
A 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA prosecutors mentioned Salim Mentioned purchased with fraud proceeds utilizing a $60,000 verify. (Division of Justice)
A 2021 Chevrolet Silverado that prosecutors mentioned Salim Mentioned purchased with stolen federal vitamin funds utilizing a $47,000 verify. (Division of Justice)
Authorities exhibit present designer luggage, jewellery, money piles, a Lamborghini photograph and a white Mercedes prosecutors labeled as “Helpful Helpers Spending” as an instance the lavish life-style contained in the community surrounding Aimee Bock. Prosecutors made no declare that Bock personally purchased these things. (Division of Justice)
At trial, Bock’s attorneys claimed she was an unwitting administrator who trusted the incorrect individuals and adopted United States Division of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines throughout a chaotic pandemic. The USDA equipped the federal little one vitamin funds through the MDE.
Her protection crew mentioned she believed the meal websites had been official and was being blamed for systemic oversight failures.
Prosecutors countered that Bock personally accredited most of the worst offenders, together with the Safari community.
The DOJ additionally launched slides exhibiting emails and communications the place Bock accused the MDE of racism when regulators questioned suspicious claims. In 2021, when the MDE grew suspicious and tried to cease the stream of funds, Feeding Our Future sued, alleging racial discrimination. A choose ordered the state to restart reimbursements — a ruling prosecutors mentioned enabled the scheme to escalate.
“Bock lied to MDE and falsely accused state officers of racism to maintain the cash flowing,” one of many slides reads.
One other slide quoted a witness telling jurors, “Aimee Bock was a God,” describing how a lot energy she held over the community.
The exhibit reveals Aimee Bock at a financial institution counter making a $30,000 money withdrawal, proof prosecutors mentioned was tied to the bribery and kickback allegations in Rely 40. (Division of Justice)
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The federal government introduced a number of slides exhibiting that witnesses testified that Bock understood the numbers had been faux or not possible and accredited them anyway.
“That math ain’t mathin’,” mentioned Cerresso Fort, the proprietor of SIR Boxing, describing figures he instructed jurors couldn’t have been actual.
Though the Safari Group was the only largest cell within the operation, prosecutors mentioned greater than a dozen further networks operated below Feeding Our Future’s umbrella.
Taken collectively, these teams submitted greater than $250 million in faux invoices, making the conspiracy one of many largest pandemic-era frauds in the USA.
A DOJ conspiracy diagram introduced at trial reveals Aimee Bock on the prime of the community, with Salim Mentioned and Safari Group operators under her. Prosecutors mentioned Bock accredited the claims that funneled hundreds of thousands to the boys in her community. (Division of Justice)
