A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A federal jury in Minneapolis has convicted two people in what federal prosecutors say was the nation's largest COVID fraud scheme. The founder and executive director of a Minnesota nonprofit called Feeding Our Future was found guilty of organizing a plan to rip off publicly funded child nutrition programs for almost $250 million. Jurors also said a former restaurant owner played a major role in that conspiracy. Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio has been covering this. So, Matt, how do prosecutors say that this scheme got started?
MATT SEPIC, BYLINE: Well, A, it involved two programs that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has operated since the late 1960s to provide food to kids from low-income families enrolled in after-school and summer activities. When COVID forced kids to stay home, the USDA allowed restaurants to participate in the food programs. Investigators say this and other rule changes, combined with lax government oversight, gave the conspirators an opportunity to get rich. Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and former restaurant owner Salim Said are among 70 defendants charged in the case. Prosecutors say the group set up hundreds of fake meal distribution sites. They used these to submit phony reimbursement claims replete with falsified invoices and attendance rosters listing fictitious children. Over 18 months, the group claimed to have served 92 million meals and collected nearly a quarter billion dollars.
MARTÍNEZ: And how did prosecutors characterize all this at the trial?
SEPIC: Well, assistant U.S. attorney Joe Thompson called it a brazen and corrupt scheme that took advantage of a global pandemic and tarnished Minnesota's reputation for good governance.
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JOE THOMPSON: It has become the shame of Minnesota. Hopefully, today's verdict will help turn the page on this awful chapter in our state's history.
SEPIC: After a five-week trial, the jury took only about five hours to reach its verdict. Bock's attorney, Ken Udoibok, says jurors likely made up their minds early on, and he's pledging to appeal.
MARTÍNEZ: What evidence did jurors hear?
SEPIC: FBI agents and forensic accountants recovered many six- and seven-figure checks, all of them signed by Aimee Bock, and jurors saw stacks of them. From the start, prosecutors said that Bock organized Feeding Our Future to facilitate fraud and even created a phony board of directors. Ben Stayberg, a St. Paul bartender listed as board president, testified that Bock handed him what he thought was a petition about feeding children. He signed it. And then it was only years later, after the investigation became public and he saw his name in The New York Times, that Stayberg realized he was board president. The jury also heard testimony from six defendants who pleaded guilty and cooperated in the hopes of receiving lenient sentences.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so what happens now in this case?
SEPIC: It'll be a few months before Bock and Said are sentenced, and Judge Nancy Brasel order them jailed until then. Several more defendants are scheduled to face trial in April. So far, more than half of the 70 defendants charged have pleaded guilty. Five others were convicted at a previous trial, and one received a sentence of 17 1/2 years.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's Matt Sepic with Minnesota Public Radio. Matt, thank you very much.
SEPIC: You're welcome.
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