Minnesota welfare fraud scheme netted $250M for mansions and Mercedes

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – No case in Minnesota’s sprawling fraud scandal captures the size of taxpayer abuse just like the Feeding Our Future scheme, through which this system’s director signed off on sham meal providers for the poor solely to have the lads 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, autos and designer items prosecutors say had been bought with stolen federal diet {dollars}.

The scheme was headed by Aimee Bock, the founder and government director of Feeding Our Future, a corporation answerable for making certain that needy children 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 obtained practically $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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Bock authorised the meal websites, a few of which had been faux, after which licensed the claims, signing off on the reimbursements from the Minnesota Division of Training (MDE). Not less than 78 individuals have now been indicted within the ongoing investigation.

Courtroom displays used within the case towards Bock and Salim Stated, an area restaurant proprietor, captured among the opulent spending Stated splurged his ill-gotten positive aspects on.

As an example, Stated used $250,000 in stolen diet 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 applications the federal cash was supposed to assist.

The displays additionally confirmed that Stated used fraud proceeds to purchase a black 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA and a 2021 Chevy Silverado.

Stated operated Safari Restaurant, a small Minneapolis eatery that claimed to be serving greater than 4,000 meals per day to the poor, in line with federal displays, whereas his firm and co-conspirators opened extra websites, in addition to dozens of shell corporations, which obtained greater than $32 million in Federal Baby Diet Program funds, prosecutors mentioned.

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In line with the indictment, Stated’s spending spree stretched far past the automobiles and homes proven within the courtroom displays — with extra actual property, electronics, money transfers, restaurant buildouts and different luxurious items bought via shell corporations he managed. Different members of the Safari group had been additionally accused of funneling diet {dollars} into luxurious automobiles and designer items.

Federal prosecutors didn’t accuse Bock of personally shopping for big-ticket objects with the fraud proceeds. 

As an alternative, they mentioned she constructed and guarded the community that enabled others to spend the cash. The displays present she authorised the websites, signed the checks and stored investigators at bay, leaving her inside circle to splurge whereas she ran the system that made all of it attainable.

The one cash motion instantly 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 collection 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 a giant private spender.

Empress Malcolm Watson Jr., whom the Minnesota Division of Income describes as Bock’s boyfriend, seems in among 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.

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The latter exhibit additionally exhibits designer baggage, jewellery and a white Mercedes-Benz — objects prosecutors labeled as “Useful Helpers Spending” for instance the lavish way of life surrounding Bock’s community. Prosecutors made no declare that Bock purchased the objects 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 transforming firm carried out for that enterprise, in line with the Minnesota Division of Income. Prosecutors say Watson spent greater than $680,000 on journey, jewellery, autos, 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 presently being held within the Anoka County jail on a felony probation violation unrelated to the tax case.

At trial, Bock’s attorneys claimed she was an unwitting administrator who trusted the flawed individuals and adopted United States Division of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines throughout a chaotic pandemic. The USDA equipped the federal youngster diet funds through the MDE. 

Her protection staff mentioned she believed the meal websites had been respectable and was being blamed for systemic oversight failures.

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Prosecutors countered that Bock personally authorised lots of the worst offenders, together with the Safari community.

The DOJ additionally launched slides displaying 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 movement 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.

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The federal government offered a number of slides displaying that witnesses testified that Bock understood the numbers had been faux or unimaginable and authorised 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 extra networks operated underneath 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.