The woman convicted at the center of Minnesota’s largest pandemic fraud case has broken her silence from jail, expressing regret while disputing prosecutors’ portrayal of her as the architect of a massive scheme that siphoned hundreds of millions in federal funds meant to feed children.
Aimee Bock, the former head of the now-defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future, spoke publicly for the first time since her conviction in a sweeping COVID-era fraud that prosecutors say exploited emergency food programs at an unprecedented scale. From a Minnesota detention facility, Bock said she wishes she could “go back and do things differently,” while maintaining that state officials who oversaw the program share responsibility for what unfolded.
Federal jurors last year found Bock guilty on all counts related to a scheme that authorities say generated roughly $250 million in fraudulent claims through federal child nutrition programs during the pandemic. Prosecutors allege the nonprofit approved reimbursement requests for millions of meals that were never served, while money flowed to luxury purchases, real estate ventures, and overseas travel.
Bock, now awaiting sentencing and facing the possibility of decades in prison, rejected claims that she orchestrated the fraud or personally profited at the scale alleged.
“I believed we were doing everything we could to protect the program,” she said, arguing that rapid growth was driven by pandemic rule changes and state approvals rather than criminal intent.
