A ‘perversion of the American dream’: Attorneys give closing arguments in Feeding Our Future fraud trial

The leader of Feeding Our Future sold vulnerable immigrants on a “perversion of the American dream,” persuading dozens of Somali business owners to join her $250 million pay-for-play scheme that made them millions of dollars before federal investigators caught up to the fraud, prosecutors said in their closing statement Tuesday in the monthlong trial.

“They just wanted to work hard and provide better lives for themselves and their families,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs, who presented the government’s closing argument to the jury. “Ladies and gentlemen, that was the American dream. It should have been enough ... But what Aimee Bock sold them was a perversion of the American dream: lie, cheat, steal, do anything to make more money. And look at them now.”

After five weeks of testimony, the defense rested its case Tuesday morning after both Bock, the founder of the nonprofit at the center of the scheme, and her alleged co-conspirator, Safari Restaurant co-owner Salim Said, testified in their defense, denying any wrongdoing or kickbacks and saying food was served to kids.

Prosecutors spent four weeks calling 30 witnesses who testified that Bock ignored concerns about the ballooning fraud, knew about kickbacks between associates and even requested kickbacks herself.

“This program is about making meals, not millionaires,” Jacobs said Tuesday.

Jacobs told the jury in his closing argument that the pandemic brought out the best in many Minnesotans. But, he said, Bock and Said, who personally earned $5.9 million from the seven meal sites he allegedly controlled, used the crisis to “enrich themselves” by exploiting a federally funded meals program that is supposed to provide food to children in need.

Prosecutors say defendants in the massive scheme submitted fake attendance sheets and phony invoices to inflate the number of meals they claimed to serve to children to get millions of dollars in government reimbursements.

Said took the stand Monday and defiantly claimed he was entitled to make millions in profits off the food program. But on Tuesday morning, as prosecutors finished questioning him about documents, he admitted that at least some of the invoices that were used to support the claims of some of his sites appeared to be fabricated.

One of those invoices, for $50,000 worth of milk, was used to support a reimbursement claim at Safari Restaurant when Said was personally vouching for the accuracy of the claims in 2020.

“They look fake to me,” Said testified, noting the invoice claimed he bought 128,000 gallons of milk in one-gallon containers even though the restaurant was serving milk only in small containers at the time.

Defense attorneys are giving their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. Kenneth Udoibok, who is representing Bock, reiterated what Bock testified on the stand: that she didn’t review invoices and daily meal counts, work that was left to other employees.

“This whole case is about meal counts,” Udoibok said. “You cannot hold Miss Bock responsible for someone else’s action. It don’t work that way.”

While prosecutors have portrayed Bock as a ringleader of the fraud scheme — one of the largest pandemic-related fraud cases in the nation — Udoibok has countered that she was a conscientious administrator surrounded by unscrupulous people who took advantage of her desire to help the underprivileged and routinely lied to cover their tracks.

“There is no question that people lied to Aimee Bock,” he said Tuesday. “You expect your employees to tell you the truth. You don’t expect consultants to be receiving kickbacks, particularly when you don’t speak the language.”

“When people tell clever lies, Miss Bock should not be held responsible,” he added.

Said’s defense attorney will give his closing argument later Tuesday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.