Prosecutors seek 50-year sentence for nonprofit leader at center of sprawling Minnesota fraud case

MINNEAPOLIS– The former executive of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted for her role at the center of a stunning $250 million fraud case that helped spark a federal immigration crackdown should spend 50 years in prison, prosecutors argued in a court filing.

Aimee Bock, who led the Feeding our Future organization that claimed to have helped provide millions of meals to children in need during the pandemic, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Minneapolis.

“Feeding Our Future operated as a cash pipeline, open to anyone willing to submit fraudulent claims and pay bribes,” prosecutors said in Monday’s filing. “The repercussions of his actions are profound, immeasurable and will have lasting consequences for both Minnesota and the nation.”

Bock was convicted last year of several counts involving conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery. She has long insisted on her innocence.

Her lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok, argued in a separate filing that she should serve no more than 37 months in prison, saying she had provided information to investigators. He argued that Bock had been unfairly portrayed as the mastermind and insisted that two co-defendants were responsible for organizing the scams.

The nonprofit was at the top of a fraudulent ring that included a network of partner organizations, fake distribution sites, kickbacks and fake lists of children supposed to be fed, prosecutors say. Dozens of people, many from the state’s large Somali community, have been convicted for their roles in a series of overlapping food fraud cases that have spent years in court.

President Donald Trump, who has long ridiculed Somalis, last year called the state a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activities.” He criticized the leadership of Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election, and pointed to fraud as justification for launching the immigration crackdown that has rocked the city.

“Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of this great state, and BILLIONS of dollars are missing. Send them back where they came from,” Trump wrote on social media.

Bock is white, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office says the overwhelming majority of defendants in these cases are of Somali descent. Most are American citizens.