Minneapolis cafe owner says Feeding Our Future founder demanded $1.5 million in cash to keep fraud scam going

A Minneapolis cafe owner testified Tuesday that Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock demanded $1.5 million in cash in 2021 to approve a fraudulent invoice totaling $3.1 million — and the Ethiopian immigrant said Bock terminated her contract when she refused to cooperate.

It was the first time a witness in this month’s Feeding Our Future trial has directly accused Bock of soliciting a bribe. Prosecutors have charged that Bock organized a pay-for-play scheme in which dozens of alleged conspirators stole $250 million by pretending to feed thousands of low-income children each day across Minnesota — one of the country’s largest pandemic-related fraud schemes.

The monthlong trial of Bock and Salim Said, who owned a Minneapolis restaurant, is the second trial to take place in the fraud case since charges were first filed in 2022.

Hanna Marekegn, who owned Brava Café in Minneapolis, was one of the first defendants to plead guilty in the sprawling case in October 2022. Marekegn said then that her business received $7.1 million in federal money after falsely claiming to serve more than 4,000 meals a day.

In her plea deal, Marekegn admitted paying $150,000 in bribes to one of Bock’s top administrators, Abdikerm Eidleh, who recruited new food distribution sites for the fast-growing nonprofit in 2020 but fled the country in late 2021. Other witnesses have described Eidleh as their main contact at Feeding Our Future, someone who showed them how to defraud the government by inflating meal counts and submitting invoices for food that was never purchased.

Like other defendants who have testified against Bock, Marekegn broke into tears on the witness stand, saying she regrets her role in a scam that exploited the needs of vulnerable children and has damaged the local East African community.

“I was bad. This is more than greed, you know,“ testified Marekegn, who has yet to be sentenced. ”This was wrong.”

Marekegn said her 13-seat café was in financial straits in 2020, when she was first introduced to Eidleh.

Despite seeing that Marekegn had no employees and a small kitchen, Eidleh suggested she promise to serve about 5,000 meals per day, Marekegn testified. She agreed to claim 4,000 meals per day even though she knew she wasn’t capable of delivering that many, she testified.

She said Eidleh demanded a 5% cut of her checks as payment for his help, which ranged from $17,000 a month in 2020 to $39,461 a month in 2021. Eidleh covered his tracks by pretending the payments were for supplies or consulting services, Marekegn testified, but he never provided any legitimate services.

She said Eidleh threatened to cancel her contract if she didn’t pay the kickbacks.

Marekegn said she was stunned when six-figure checks started rolling in every month from her inflated meal claims. She said Feeding Our Future employees persuaded her that what she and other site operators were doing was not illegal.

“We knew everything was wrong but we kept doing it because we needed the money,” Marekegn testified. “Everyone said COVID fraud is not fraud.”

Marekegn testified that she told Bock about the kickbacks in 2021, when she wanted to stop the illegal payments to Eidleh.

“She says keep doing what you and Eidleh agreed,” Marekegn testified. “She didn’t want to know the details.”

Marekegn said her profits spiked in 2021, after she became a vendor to two other sites overseen by Feeding Our Future. But she said the numbers got so big that she could no longer come up with enough invoices to cover her tracks.

The breaking point, Marekegn testified, was an invoice she submitted for $3.1 million. Though other site operators typically charged less than $10 for meals, Brava sought $38.50 per meal, claiming each one represented a week’s worth of food.

For the first time, Marekegn testified, Bock questioned one of her bills, saying she didn’t have the capacity to serve that much food or the invoices to back up her purchases.

Marekegn testified that Bock asked to meet at a coffee shop and told her to leave her cellphone and Apple Watch in the car, possibly to keep her from secretly recording the meeting.

Marekegn said she refused to pay the bribe, which she claimed Bock wanted in cash.

“I cannot come up with a million and a half in cash,” Marekegn testified.

The following month, Bock terminated Marekegn’s contract. Bock and Marekegn later submitted complaints to the Minnesota Department of Education about each other. The department distributes the federal funding to reimburse schools and nonprofits for feeding children after school and during the summer.

On cross-examination, Bock’s attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, asked if the reason Bock asked Marekegn to leave her phone and watch in the car was because “Miss Bock did not trust you as a person.”

“Yes, sir,” Marekegn said.

Genesis Alonso, who worked as food program coordinator at Feeding Our Future, told jurors that she brought questionable invoices and other documents to Bock when she failed to get answers from site operators or her co-workers at Feeding Our Future.

One of the most troubling things she saw, Alonso testified, was the same invoice number showing up repeatedly on different invoices, an indicator of possible fraud.

On cross-examination, Alonso admitted that she doesn’t know if Bock conducted any investigation to substantiate or disprove her concerns.

Of the 70 people charged in the Feeding Our Future case, 35 have pleaded guilty and five were convicted by a jury last year while two were acquitted.

The latest defendant, Najmo Ahmed, 35, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty Monday. She and her husband, Said Ereg, ran Evergreen Grocery and Deli, which received more than $4.2 million from Feeding Our Future. Instead of buying food for children, prosecutors said, she spent money on items from Burberry, Louis Vuitton and other luxury stores.