Over the objections of her attorney, Aimee Bock took the witness stand in her defense Friday but did not get a chance to address her role as the alleged ringleader of an extraordinary $250 million fraud scheme before the judge ended testimony for the day in the federal trial.

In a sign of how difficult it may be to overcome the government’s case against Bock — who led Feeding Our Future, which is at the center of the FBI investigation — her lawyer Kenneth Udoibok struggled and failed to show two basic business records to the jury after prosecutors objected to the evidence.

Citing the “untrustworthiness” of the defendant, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel refused to let Udoibok show the jury what he called Bock’s official job description as well as an agreement Udoibok said Bock signed with a local accounting firm to handle the business of her St. Anthony nonprofit.

Previously, Brasel had warned Udoibok against wasting the court’s time by asking witnesses to go over the same material covered during their examination by prosecutors.

“Why am I struggling so much? Because it’s a tough case,” Udoibok told the Minnesota Star Tribune afterwards. “I am going against the federal government, all right? ... Just because they object doesn’t mean I can’t tell my story. I am just getting started.”

Bock testified for about an hour before Brasel ended court for the day. Afterwards, Bock declined to answer questions from reporters about why she decided to take the stand. In last year’s trial of seven people connected to a Shakopee restaurant that worked with Bock’s organization, only one defendant testified on their own behalf.

Bock has denied any wrongdoing since the FBI raided her Rosemount home and offices three years ago. But Udoibok did not ask her any questions Friday about the crimes she has been accused of, focusing instead on her background and the events leading to the creation of her nonprofit in 2016.

Over the last four weeks of the trial, prosecutors have called more than 30 witnesses to the stand to prove their case that Bock knew about the ballooning fraud scheme that has led to charges against 69 other people, and that she pocketed more than $1 million herself from it.

Prosecutors questioned FBI agents, education leaders and former meal site operators who said Bock taught them how to submit bogus expenses and inflate meal claims to get rich. Former board members also testified they never knew they were even on the board, despite minutes showing they were present at board meetings in 2020 and 2021.

On Friday, Bock glossed over that testimony from former board members of Feeding Our Future. Though an organizational chart showed that the board was responsible for overseeing the entire organization, Bock said the nonprofit’s operations were “very informal.” She said she remembered asking all of them to join the board and even attended meetings with at least one of them.

The fraud case centers around federally funded meal programs that reimburse schools and nonprofits for feeding low-income kids after school and during the summer. Feeding Our Future was a “sponsor,” overseeing nearly 300 meal sites.

Prosecutors allege defendants in the sprawling case served little to no meals, and used the lucrative scheme to fund their lavish lifestyles or trade kickbacks to one another. It’s one of the largest pandemic-related fraud schemes in the country.

Bock testified that Feeding Our Future did not become “operational” until 2018, the year she was fired for misconduct by her former employer, Partners in Nutrition in St. Paul, according to a complaint Partners filed with federal regulators over Feeding Our Future’s conduct in 2019.

Bock did not address her termination, merely noting she left Partners in Nutrition because she had some “differences” with the organization, which also sponsored fraudulent meal programs, though no one with the organization has been charged.

Before Bock testified, Friday’s testimony centered on the $1 million in Feeding Our Future funds that Bock funneled to her former boyfriend, Malcolm Watson Jr. Though Bock has claimed that most of that money was spent on renovations to her nonprofit’s headquarters, a forensic accountant with the FBI testified that very little of that money could be traced to construction work.

Instead, the accountant testified, Watson and Bock used the money to pay for a high-end lifestyle, with purchases of a Porsche and Tesla, as well as two Las Vegas trips that featured the rental of a Lamborghini that cost $2,297 per day. At least $200,000 was withdrawn in cash, but the accountant could not say how Watson and Bock may have used that money.

Bock is on trial along with Salim Said, owner of now-defunct Safari Restaurant, which was overseen by Bock’s nonprofit. The organizations he created collectively received more than $44 million in federal funds, making them the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme. This week, an FBI accountant testified Said personally earned $5.9 million.

According to new testimony from FBI accountants this week, Bock received $1.9 million in the scheme, including the money she funneled to Watson.

Udoibok was the first defense attorney to start presenting their side after the prosecution wrapped up their case on Friday. Bock will continue testifying on Wednesday when the trial resumes following a scheduled two-day break.

Also on Friday, the Lakeville man accused of witness tampering in the trial pleaded guilty to his role in the fraud scheme, the 37th person out of 70 people charged to do so. Abdinasir Abshir, 33, was arrested and held in federal custody last month after allegedly asking to talk to a witness in the courthouse bathroom before the witness testified.

Abshir operated a Mankato food distribution site that was sponsored by Feeding Our Future and received about $5 million for claiming to serve 1.6 million meals. He used the money to buy a Range Rover and send bribes and kickbacks to others in the scheme.

As a result of the witness tampering allegations, Brasel barred other defendants in the case from being on the floor of the courthouse during the trial. The trial has also had increased security measures after a shocking attempted juror bribery incident in last year’s trial, where a jury convicted five of the seven people.