By Riley Moser
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Minnesota (WCCO) — The ringleader behind the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case has been accused of directing her son to leak sensitive materials to the media and elected officials in an attempt to minimize her role in the scheme ahead of her sentencing, court documents allege.
The United States Attorney’s Office filed a motion on Tuesday that says Aimee Bock, since at least February, has been directing her college-age son to “download large volumes of material related to her federal prosecution,” and disseminate them to lawmakers and members of the media in what “can best be described as a public relations campaign.”
The motion states that a member of the Minnesota House received two emails from the same address claiming “Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, and the Minnesota Department of Education intentionally set Feeding Our Future and Aimee Bock up as a scapegoat.” Attached to the emails were documents governed by a protective order, including emails from Bock’s Feeding Our Future email account.
Bock, on a March 16 recorded jail call, allegedly instructed her son to download documents from her Dropbox account, which she believed showed she tried to combat fraud at Feeding Our Future, and told him to put “Ellison’s office intentionally set Bock/FOF up to be a scapegoat” in the body of the email.
In a March 27 call, Bock commanded her son to send the files to “Republicans in DC,” including the “guy who told Ellison he should be in jail,” and the “right wing people the Trump follows,” according ot the motion.
Court documents say Bock, on multiple occasions, would instruct her son to remove any exhibit stickers or other markings that indicated they came from her federal criminal case before sending the materials.
In a call with an unidentified woman, Bock claimed she hadn’t “snitch[ed] on nobody” while her case was pending, “but we’re blowing s*** up now. We’re leaking all kinds of documents,” according to the motion.
Last week, the attorney’s office learned a reporter for the Minnesota Star Tribune had obtained copies of documents that “could only have come from the government’s discovery disclosures, in violation of the Court’s Protective Order.”
This led the government to investigate who was responsible for leaking the documents to the Minnesota Star Tribune reporter. They were unable to determine with certainty who provided the reports, but “it seems apparent that Bock, or an individual acting on her behalf, is responsible,” the motion said.
The attorney’s office says Bock said in an April 19 phone call that her criminal defense attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, and the editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune were planning on when to publish an article that would “favorably color her role in the fraud” to “garner the most strategic advantage.”
When asked for comment on the allegations, the Minnesota Star Tribune told WCCO it “cannot comment on stories we may or may not be working on, or on our reporting process.”
“Bock’s leaking of protected material into the public domain is directly and highly harmful not only to the government’s prosecution, but also to the safety of those witnesses who have chosen to come forward and speak to law enforcement. Protective orders are entered to prevent exactly this type of conduct, and Bock should be sanctioned accordingly for her manipulation of the criminal justice process,” prosecutors wrote in Tuesday’s motion.
Bock’s attorney, Kenneth Udiobok, told WCCO in a statement that his client “doesn’t mean any harm.”
“In an inartful way, her kids, who are under 19 years of age, are hoping that the media and the legislative branch see their mom’s plight. Aimee is not trying to harm or intimidate anyone; rather, she wants the whole truth out before the legislature and the president. She’s crying for help,” Udiobok said.
As a result of the allegations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is asking the court to sanction Bock for violating the protective order and modify the order to require Bock to relinquish control of her Dropbox account and surrender all physical and electronic copies of protected material in her possession, including her son’s computer.
Additionally, prosecutors suggest sanctions include an order prohibiting Bock from any form of contact with her sons ahead of her May 21 sentencing.
Bock’s next motion hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Bock was found guilty in March last year on all criminal charges against her, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.
Prosecutors alleged Bock signed off on reimbursement claims for millions of meals that were never served. Together, she and the meal site operators were accused of stealing tens of millions of federal dollars and spending it on luxury cars, real estate ventures and vacations. Last year, a judge ordered her to forfeit more than $5 million in proceeds from the scheme.
Since 2021, 92 people have been charged in the schemes, with 67 convicted, including five people who pleaded guilty last month for their roles in the Feeding Our Future scandal that exploited a federal nutrition program.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Bock defended her conduct, admitted regrets and argued that state officials who she worked with should bear some of the blame. It was the first time Bock spoke publicly since she was arrested.
Ashley Grams contributed to this report.
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