Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock to 50 years in prison, arguing that she led a fraud scheme that was “brazen and staggering” and “deliberately exploited a public program designed to feed children during one of the most vulnerable periods in a generation.”

Bock, 45, is among 65 people convicted since late 2022 in what investigators say was the nation’s largest COVID-19 fraud.

The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged 79 people with filing fraudulent reimbursement claims in the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program for millions of meals that were never served.

In a sentencing memorandum filed Monday ahead of Bock’s Thursday sentencing hearing, prosecutors write that Bock orchestrated a scheme to steal more than $242 million from the programs.

A federal jury convicted Bock and former Safari Restaurant co-owner Salim Said last year. Prosecutors say that Bock “herself certified each false claim being submitted for reimbursement,” and they described Feeding Our Future as a “sham nonprofit” set up to funnel stolen money to co-conspirators.

The government also argue that after her conviction, Bock has shown “zero respect for the law and no remorse for the harms she has caused” while continuing to deny responsibility.

Bock’s defense attorney Ken Udoibok is requesting a sentence of three years. He says the government’s loss calculation is unreliable and it’s unfair to attribute the entire amount to Bock.

In his own 75-page argument for leniency, Udoibok writes that the court “must sentence Ms. Bock based on what was proven against her, not on the sheer size of the broader public controversy, not on the conduct of every site operator and vendor who passed through the program.”

Source: NPR