The attorney for Feeding Our Future’s former executive director, Aimee Bock, said his client isn’t doing well financially, lost her home and car, and is living with her parents.
Bock, who had her bank accounts frozen in early 2022 after the FBI raided Feeding Our Future and several other businesses, appeared in court Wednesday afternoon on allegations she violated her pretrial release
“No one wants to hire her,” Kenneth Udoibok, Bock’s attorney, told reporters after the hearing. “Just think about it, what you hear — the amount of money that people took … She lost her car, lost her house, doesn’t have a job. A grown woman with children is living with her parents. That’s tough.”
Bock is indicted in federal court for allegedly facilitating the theft of millions of dollars in federal food-aid money. The hearing, which lasted a few minutes, was routine: Bock consolidated her existing student debt earlier this year into a loan of $186,000 without disclosing it to her pretrial services officer.
“We think it’s a tactical violation of the terms of her pretrial release,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson told the court at the hearing. “Under terms of her pretrial release, she should disclose that to the pretrial services officer before she takes that on.”
Prosecutors did not ask to arrest Bock, who was released on her own recognizance after being indicted in 2022 in the broader Feeding Our Future fraud case, which involved the alleged theft of $250 million in federal funds earmarked to feed underprivileged children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors also did not seek new conditions for her pretrial release. Magistrate Judge David Schultz gave Bock a verbal warning not to violate the terms of her pretrial release.
Bock is charged with six crimes, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and one count of federal programs bribery.
Udoibok emphasized in court Tuesday that Bock’s recent loan was a consolidation of existing debt, and that she had disclosed the original sources of the debt to her pretrial release officer back in 2022.
“There was no intentionality at all to violate this court’s condition,” Udoibok told the court. “All she did was consolidate her loans. It’s not getting a new line of credit.”
Magistrate Judge David Schultz said he understood Bock’s position. But he reminded her to stay in compliance with the conditions of her pretrial release.
“Let me emphasize — you have to strictly comply with the terms of your release,” Schultz said. “Make sure you do that, because further violations might not end that well.”
Udoibock spoke to reporters after the hearing, maintaining his client’s innocence.
“I can assure you that Aimee Bock committed no crimes,” he said. “And I trust the jury. They almost always get it right, and they’ll get it right.”
Bock is scheduled to stand trial on February 3.
Federal prosecutors have said the broader fraud case involved the theft of federal money the Minnesota Department of Education distributed to Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care. Those nonprofits, which have both since closed, distributed the money further to food vendors and sites that were supposed to feed children ready-to-eat meals.
Some organizations along the chain allegedly reported serving more meals than they actually did in order to receive more federal money. Some never served any meals at all despite claiming that they had.
Federal prosecutors allege that Bock oversaw a “massive scheme to defraud” the federal government committed by the sites that Feeding Our Future sponsored.
Udoibok said he’s looking forward to his client’s trial early next year.
“I cannot wait — she cannot wait — until February, when this will be all over,” Udoibok said.
Her indictment alleges that Bock took a $310,000 payment from a contractor that was working with Feeding Our Future. Bock previously told Sahan Journal that the money was used to purchase a daycare business that she founded in 2019.
“Other than that, what do they have?” Uboibok said of the prosecution’s case and the $310,000 transaction. “I don’t think they have much.”
Udoibok said that Bock doesn’t have any money, and that the defendants who’ve been convicted and pleaded guilty were involved with Partners in Quality Care, a rival sponsor organization. Twelve of the 22 defendants who have pleaded guilty , however, testified in court that they worked with Feeding Our Future to obtain federal food-aid money.
Udoibok noted that jurors acquitted two of the five defendants in the first Feeding Our Future trial, which took place this past spring. The acquittals, he said, could be a sign that the prosecution’s case against Bock isn’t as strong as they believe, and that the truth is more complicated.
The acquittals were the result of “discredited testimony” from Hadith Ahmed, a former Feeding Our Future employee who worked with Bock. Hadith was among the first defendants to plead guilty in the case.
“That should tell folks something,” Udoibok said. “It’s pretty clear that what you hear is not necessarily what happened.”
The post ‘That’s tough’: Aimee Bock lives with parents, can’t find work because of Feeding Our Future charges appeared first on Sahan Journal .
Local News
