Feeding Our Future leader bragged she knew ‘how to make money’ as FBI closed in on fraud investigation

As federal investigators were closing in on Aimee Bock’s $200 million operation, the founder of Feeding Our Future found new ways to personally collect hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to an FBI forensic accountant who testified at her trial Tuesday.

The accountant, Lacra Blackwell, said Bock boasted of her money-making prowess to her then-boyfriend, felon Malcolm Watson, who she berated in a series of messages for not pulling his weight in the relationship, which prosecutors showed the jury on Tuesday.

“I know how to make money,” Bock said in one social media posting, which came on the day bank records show she deposited $78,400 into one of her accounts. “You say you do to [sic], but have never once shown it. Why? Is there a reason you won’t do what needs to get done to get ahead?”

Bock has been accused by prosecutors of organizing a pay-for-play scheme in which dozens of alleged conspirators stole $250 million by pretending to feed thousands of children each day at sites across Minnesota — one of the country’s largest pandemic-related fraud schemes.

Bock is on trial with an alleged accomplice, Salim Said, co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, whose owners collected nearly $39 million through all of their affiliates involved in the meals program, Blackwell testified Tuesday. No other entity sponsored by Feeding Our Future earned anywhere near as much, records show.

In October 2021, six months after federal agents began quietly investigating Feeding Our Future, Bock created a GoFundMe account that raised $73,985 in less than three months. Unlike many GoFundMe accounts, which get significant funding from strangers, all of the donations to Bock’s fundraiser came from people involved in the meals program and operated sites sponsored by Feeding Our Future, Blackwell testified.

Among the biggest donors: Sharmake Jama, who gave $5,000 in December 2021 after obtaining $5 million in inflated reimbursements through Feeding Our Future. Jama, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in January, testified against Bock last month in the trial, which started Feb. 3.

She also received $5,000 from alleged co-conspirator Abdinasir Abshir, who is being held in custody until his August trial because he allegedly tried tampering with a witness during Bock’s trial by inviting the witness into a bathroom for a private conversation during a break in testimony.

Two months after starting the GoFundMe account, Bock created a new company called School Age Consultants, records show. It was even more successful. In about a month, the business hauled in $103,600, all of it in checks written out for either $2,800 or $5,600 and all if it coming from about three dozen meal site operators, Blackwell testified.

Bock’s attorney, Ken Udoibok, said that the checks were for a policy manual that Bock created for day care operators, suggesting that many of the food site operations were going to expand their operations into child care. And many of the checks displayed by Blackwell in court had the word “policy” in the memo line.

But site operator Abdulkadir Awale, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2023 for his role in obtaining more than $11 million in meal program money by inflating his invoices, testified last month that the money was actually for a rainy-day fund for Feeding Our Future and Bock.

Awale said he was one of 30 or 40 site operators who gathered at Feeding Our Future’s St. Anthony headquarters in December 2021 to hear from Bock about her latest legal struggles.

At that point, records show, Bock had largely prevailed over the Minnesota Department of Education, which oversees federal funding in these programs, and tried to slow the growth of Feeding Our Future and halt payments to suspicious sites in 2021 but reinstated funding after the nonprofit won a series of court battles.

Awale said Bock personally spoke at the meeting and “explained the difficulties she had with the government,” telling attendees she needed money to hire lawyers to defend the program.

Awale said three Somali men who attended the meeting also indicated there was a racial basis for the government’s latest moves against Feeding Our Future, saying the nonprofit was a target because it “supported the Somali community.”

Bock has used that message before, FBI agents have testified, noting her attorney accused the Education Department of “systemic racism” when it delayed approval for a number of questionable sites in 2020.

Awale, who immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia, said he was convinced and provided two checks at the meeting, one for $5,000 to Feeding Our Future and another one for $2,800 to School Age Consultants. He said he was instructed by other people at the meeting on how to fill out the checks.

When asked if he knew what School Age Consultants was, Awale testified, “I have no idea.”

On cross-examination, Udoibok noted that the $2,800 check indicated it was for Shafi Tutoring on the memo line. “You own Shafi Tutoring?” Udoibok asked.

“No, I don’t,” Awale testified. “I own Sambusa King,” referring to his Hopkins restaurant.

Awale testified that “a lot of people” attending the meeting also provided checks, with some kicking in as much as $10,000 to Feeding Our Future.

Feeding Our Future also collected about $180,000 from site operators as donations in December 2021, Blackwell testified.

At about the time of the meeting, Blackwell testified, Bock sent a social media message to Watson bragging that “the amount of money I’m going to make tomorrow you should be [expletive] happy.”

Blackwell testified that bank records show Bock spent most of the money she collected from School Age Consultants on “personal” expenses. One of her biggest expenditures took place just a few days before FBI agents raided her Rosemount home and business in January 2022.

On Jan. 15, 2022, bank records show, Bock paid $2,487 for a stay at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis. While in Memphis, Blackwell testified, photos taken from Bock’s phone show she and Watson visited Graceland, where they splurged on the “Ultimate VIP” package, which costs $210 per ticket without dinner.

Udoibok said Watson and Bock are no longer in a relationship.

Prosecutors expect to call their final witnesses Wednesday, and then defense attorneys could begin presenting their case. Udoibok said it is not clear yet whether Bock will testify in her own defense.