Minnesota hunger non-profit leader gets 41 years in prison for $250 million fraud scheme

The leader of a Minnesota ​non-profit group was sentenced to ​41 years in prison ‌on Thursday ​after she was convicted last year of being the ringleader of a $250 million scheme to ‌defraud a federally funded child nutrition program.

The leader of a Minnesota ​non-profit group was sentenced to ​41 years in prison ‌on Thursday ​after she was convicted last year of being the ringleader of a $250 million scheme to ‌defraud a federally funded child nutrition program. Aimee Bock, 45, was charged in 2022 with using her non-profit group Feeding Our Future to enact what ‌the Justice Department said was the largest known fraud against ‌the U.S. government's relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 70 other people have been charged alongside Bock. The fraud has been often invoked by U.S. President ⁠Donald ​Trump, a Republican, as ⁠part of his rationale for targeting Minnesota, led by Democrats, for an aggressive ⁠surge in arresting immigrants earlier this year. Bock cried as she addressed U.S. District ​Judge Nancy Brasel at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, the ⁠Minnesota Star Tribune reported: "I don’t have the words to express just how horrible I feel. ⁠I ​know I’m responsible."

Federal prosecutors had sought 50 years in prison. In sentencing Bock to 500 months, or 41 years and ⁠eight months, Brasel said a lengthy sentence was necessary because of Bock's central ⁠role. "This is ⁠a vortex of fraud, and you were at the epicenter," the judge said, according to the Star ‌Tribune.