Feeding Our Future trial: Aimee Bock admits fraud, just not by her
Feeding Our Future trial: Aimee Bock cross-examined
Alleged ringleader of the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme was cross-examined Thursday, where she admitted fraud took place but not by her. FOX 9's Rob Olson has the latest.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Aimee Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, agreed that federal prosecutors have proven fraud occurred in the meal sites and vendors she sponsored.
She said it was everyone else conspiring, not her.
When she asked if strangely high meal claims were accurate, "they were all saying yes," she testified. "Because, as the government has been able to show, they were all in on it together."
Aggressive cross-examination
What she said:
Bock was pressed by a prosecutor about the meal counts and invoices that others, who have pled guilty, testified were fake.
"I trusted that the staff had reviewed," she said, repeatedly putting the responsibility on employees at Feeding Our Future.
When she then submitted those fraudulent claims to the state for reimbursement, she said she simply entered the data.
She also signed the submissions, which included language that attested the information was accurate and that deliberate misrepresentation would subject her to prosecution. She said she did not intentionally misrepresent.
"I entered the data," she said, insisting her responsibility was to ensure the forms were fully filled out and "certified that they were claimed in the right category."
Laying the blame on others
Dig deeper:
Bock also testified that she only reviewed meal counts and rosters when someone had a question about them.
And for all the rosters now proven to be filled with made-up names from a website, she said she would have had no reason to suspect that because she would have no way to verify them.
Asked, too, about the money transferred from Feeding Our Future to her boyfriend, she explained that was all for work done renovating her offices.
As for the expensive jewelry, vacations and car rentals he paid for with federal food money proceeds, she only conceded "I was an unwilling passenger in a Lamborghini, yes."
Bock returns to the stand Friday. Salim Said’s defense will then call a couple of witnesses, possibly Said himself.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday.