The media has been giving quite a lot of attention to Aimee Bock, the head of a Minnesota nonprofit at the center of the largest pandemic relief fraud in the nation's history - which she now says Governor Tim Walz and AG Keith Ellison had to have known about.
To review; Bock's organization, Feeding Our Future, fraudulently signed off on $250 million in federal funds meant to feed underprivileged children in Minnesota roughly 125 million nonexistent meals. According to prosecutors, as little as 3% of the funds were actually used to feed children. Bock, 45, was charged with signing off on reimbursement claims for the unserved meals, as well as collecting bribes. She maintains her innocence, while one Somali community leader told a local reporter that Bock was "a modern-day Robin Hood."
Feeding Our Future was a "sponsoring organization," meaning it approved meal sites, approved meal counts, and distributed the reimbursements to hundreds of sponsored food sites across the state which were mostly operated by Somalians that submitted fraudulent claims. However, in exchange for Bock's sponsorship and approvals (she sued the state for discrimination in November 2020, claiming the Department of Education was unfairly targeting minority-led programs), the Somalians paid kickbacks to Bock and other Feeding Our Future employees, prosecutors said.
So far, 98 people have been charged in the fraud, 85 of whom are Somalians - unlike Bock, who is white. Hence the media focus on her. Over 64 of those charged have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.
Karen Undone
Bock, who's awaiting sentencing and faces up to 33 years in prison, is now giving jailhouse interviews to mainstream outlets - telling CBS News that she wishes she could "go back and do things differently, stop things, catch things."
She claims she was doing everything in her power to root out fraud, and terminated agreements with dozens of entities she believed were cheating the system.
"I was the only one that stopped a claim and said, this is fraudulent," she said. "There are tens of millions of dollars in claims that we did not pay, that we refused."
Feeding Our Future notably submitted $3.4 million worth of meal claims in 2019 - a figure which exploded to nearly $200 million in 2021, which Bock attributed to looser guidelines during the pandemic that allowed parents to pick up meals and bring them home.
Walz Knew?
Bock blames Minnesota officials for not catching the fraud, telling CBS: "We relied on the state," adding that local officials, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, would often visit the meal sites. "We told the state, this site is going to operate at this address, this time, and this number of children. The state would then tell us that's approved."
Now, Bock says there's no way Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison weren't aware of the fraud.
"I have to believe that the governor's office and Keith Ellison's office were aware of this. They've said they were involved in helping the FBI. They've said they were made aware, but apparently I'm scary, so they couldn't do anything," Bock told Fox News. "I honestly believe Keith Ellison and Gov. Walz need to be held accountable. There needs to be an investigation done. If they weren't aware, that's concerning."
Ellison's office told the outlet that Bock lacks credibility, pointing to her conviction.
"She is a liar, fraudster, and manipulator of the highest order who has never acknowledged or accepted her guilt. Now, she’s on a media tour to deflect her guilt onto others instead of finally taking responsibility for the fraud scheme she ran," said a spokesperson.
"Federal and state investigators meticulously examined the crimes Bock and her accomplices committed," the Ellison spokesperson continued. "Bock alone is responsible for her own actions, which was proven in court beyond a shadow of a doubt, and her claim about Attorney General Ellison is a lie without a shred of evidence behind it."
According to the House Oversight Committee's James Comer (R-KY), the DOJ has issued over 1,750 subpoenas, executed over 130 search warrants, and conducted over 1,000 witness interviews in a sweeping federal probe. Comer says federal prosecutors believe at least $9 billion has been stolen across multiple fraud schemes in Minnesota.
"The breadth and depth of this fraud is breathtaking. And I fear it is just the tip of the iceberg. Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota’s Democratic leadership have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in these crimes," he said. "They failed Minnesotans and all Americans, handing millions of taxpayers’ money to fraudsters."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.