Minnesota welfare fraud scheme netted $250M for mansions and Mercedes

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – No case in Minnesota's sprawling fraud scandal captures the dimensions of taxpayer abuse just like the Feeding Our Future scheme , during which this system's director signed off on sham meal providers for the poor solely to have the lads round her splurge on mansions, luxurious vehicles and lavish life.

Fox Information Digital has obtained the courtroom displays used at trial, together with pictures of the properties, automobiles and designer items prosecutors say have been bought with stolen federal vitamin {dollars}.

The scheme was headed by Aimee Bock, the founder and government director of Feeding Our Future, a corporation accountable for making certain that needy youngsters didn’t go hungry in the course of the COVID pandemic.

Bock presided over a community that claimed to have served 91 million meals, for which the scammers fraudulently acquired practically $250 million in federal funds. Bock, who was convicted by a federal jury on March 19, 2025, of wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery for her function, was dubbed the scheme’s "mastermind" by federal prosecutors.

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Prosecutors say Aimee Bock, founding father of Feeding Our Future, and Salim Stated helped orchestrate one of many largest pandemic-relief fraud schemes in U.S. historical past. Each have been discovered responsible of diverting federal child-nutrition funds into luxurious properties, automobiles and different private spending, in keeping with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace. (Sherburne County Sheriff’s Workplace)

Bock permitted the meal websites, a few of which have been faux, after which licensed the claims, signing off on the reimbursements from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). A minimum of 78 individuals have now been indicted within the ongoing investigation.

Court docket displays used within the case towards Bock and Salim Stated, an area restaurant proprietor, captured a few of the opulent spending Stated splurged his ill-gotten features on.

As an illustration, Stated used $250,000 in stolen vitamin funds to purchase a big house in Plymouth, whereas one other $2.7 million wire switch linked to the fraud was routed right into a Minneapolis mansion-style workplace constructing, prosecutors stated, that served because the headquarters for his firm, Safari Group.

The property stood in stark distinction to the daycare facilities and after-school applications the federal cash was supposed to assist.

The displays additionally confirmed that Stated used fraud proceeds to purchase a black 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA and a 2021 Chevy Silverado.

Stated operated Safari Restaurant, a small Minneapolis eatery that claimed to be serving greater than 4,000 meals per day to the poor, in keeping with federal displays, whereas his firm and co-conspirators opened further websites, in addition to dozens of shell corporations, which acquired greater than $32 million in Federal Little one Diet Program funds, prosecutors stated.

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A Minneapolis property at 2722–42 Park Avenue South that prosecutors stated was bought with a $2.7 million wire switch tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme and used because the headquarters for Salim Stated’s Safari Group. (Division of Justice)

The Plymouth house prosecutors stated Salim Stated bought utilizing a $250,000 cost traced to laundered Feeding Our Future funds. (Division of Justice)

In response to the indictment, Stated’s spending spree stretched far past the vehicles and homes proven within the courtroom displays — with further actual property, electronics, money transfers, restaurant buildouts and different luxurious items bought by way of shell corporations he managed. Different members of the Safari group have been additionally accused of funneling vitamin {dollars} into luxurious vehicles and designer items.

Federal prosecutors didn't accuse Bock of personally shopping for big-ticket gadgets with the fraud proceeds.

As a substitute, they stated she constructed and guarded the community that enabled others to spend the cash. The displays present she permitted the websites, signed the checks and saved investigators at bay, leaving her interior circle to splurge whereas she ran the system that made all of it attainable.

The one cash motion straight tied to Bock within the displays was an image of her making a $30,000 money withdrawal, proof, prosecutors stated, that she was concerned in a kickback scheme by accepting money funds from meal-site operators in trade for website approvals and reimbursements.

A sequence of reimbursement checks she signed for alleged fraud websites have been additionally proven, proof prosecutors stated captured her function because the scheme’s "gatekeeper," although not a giant private spender.

Empress Malcolm Watson Jr., whom the Minnesota Department of Revenue describes as Bock's boyfriend, seems in a few of the displays, together with a photograph of him inside a Rolls-Royce with Bock standing subsequent to him. He’s pictured in one other photograph standing in entrance of a Lamborghini.

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<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/12/672/378/aimee-bock-with-boyfriend-empress-malcolm-watson-jr-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/12/1344/756/aimee-bock-with-boyfriend-empress-malcolm-watson-jr-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/12/931/523/aimee-bock-with-boyfriend-empress-malcolm-watson-jr-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/12/1862/1046/aimee-bock-with-boyfriend-empress-malcolm-watson-jr-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Aimee Bock beside a Rolls-Royce with Empress Malcolm Watson Jr. Prosecutors stated the picture illustrated the approach to life surrounding the community however didn't accuse Bock of shopping for the car. (Division of Justice)

The latter exhibit additionally reveals designer luggage, jewellery and a white Mercedes-Benz — gadgets prosecutors labeled as "Helpful Helpers Spending" for example the lavish life-style surrounding Bock’s community. Prosecutors made no declare that Bock purchased the gadgets herself and one co-conspirator even testified that Bock warned them to not splurge, telling them that luxurious purchases would "turn into apparent."

Watson earned greater than $1 million for work he did as an worker of Bock’s for-profit childcare consulting enterprise, in addition to work his personal transforming firm carried out for that enterprise, in keeping with the Minnesota Division of Income. Prosecutors say Watson spent greater than $680,000 on journey, jewellery, automobiles, money withdrawals, or transfers to different accounts.

Watson has not been charged within the Feeding Our Future circumstances. He was charged with six tax-related felony offenses in September for allegedly underreporting his earnings for 2020 and 2021, failing to file a return for 2022 and failing to pay the earnings taxes he owed for these years. Watson allegedly owes greater than $64,000 in unpaid earnings tax. He's at present being held within the Anoka County jail on a felony probation violation unrelated to the tax case.

A 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA prosecutors stated Salim Stated purchased with fraud proceeds utilizing a $60,000 examine. (Division of Justice)

A 2021 Chevrolet Silverado that prosecutors stated Salim Stated purchased with stolen federal vitamin funds utilizing a $47,000 examine. (Division of Justice)

Authorities exhibit present designer luggage, jewellery, money piles, a Lamborghini photograph and a white Mercedes prosecutors labeled as "Helpful Helpers Spending" for example the lavish life-style contained in the community surrounding Aimee Bock. Prosecutors made no declare that Bock personally purchased this stuff. (Division of Justice)

At trial , Bock’s attorneys claimed she was an unwitting administrator who trusted the flawed individuals and adopted United States Division of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines throughout a chaotic pandemic. The USDA equipped the federal baby vitamin funds by way of the MDE.

Her protection staff stated she believed the meal websites have been legit and was being blamed for systemic oversight failures.

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Prosecutors countered that Bock personally permitted most of the worst offenders, together with the Safari community.

The DOJ additionally launched slides exhibiting emails and communications the place Bock accused the MDE of racism when regulators questioned suspicious claims. In 2021, when the MDE grew suspicious and tried to cease the movement of funds, Feeding Our Future sued, alleging racial discrimination. A choose ordered the state to restart reimbursements — a ruling prosecutors stated enabled the scheme to escalate.

"Bock lied to MDE and falsely accused state officers of racism to maintain the cash flowing," one of many slides reads.

One other slide quoted a witness telling jurors, "Aimee Bock was a God," describing how a lot energy she held over the community.

The exhibit reveals Aimee Bock at a financial institution counter making a $30,000 money withdrawal, proof prosecutors stated was tied to the bribery and kickback allegations in Depend 40. (Division of Justice)

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The federal government introduced a number of slides exhibiting that witnesses testified that Bock understood the numbers have been faux or inconceivable and permitted them anyway.

"That math ain’t mathin’," stated Cerresso Fort, the proprietor of SIR Boxing, describing figures he advised jurors couldn't have been actual.

Though the Safari Group was the only largest cell within the operation, prosecutors stated greater than a dozen further networks operated beneath Feeding Our Future’s umbrella.

Taken collectively, these teams submitted greater than $250 million in faux invoices, making the conspiracy one of many largest pandemic-era frauds in the USA.

A DOJ conspiracy diagram introduced at trial reveals Aimee Bock on the prime of the community, with Salim Stated and Safari Group operators under her. Prosecutors stated Bock permitted the claims that funneled tens of millions to the lads in her community. (Division of Justice)