A woman who admitted stealing millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the pandemic gave tearful testimony this week against the scam’s alleged ringleader. Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock is on trial along with former restaurant owner Salim Said. Federal prosecutors say the two played key roles in a $250 million dollar fraud scheme centered around Bock’s former nonprofit.

Qamar Hassan, 56, pleaded guilty in 2023 to wire fraud and money laundering and admitted that she and her business partner Sahra Nur, 63, submitted fraudulent food reimbursement requests worth more than $16 million through their company S&S Catering.

Hassan, who was the third cooperating defendant to testify for the government, testified Thursday that she and Nur met with Bock in August of 2020, and Bock told them that Safari Restaurant, which Bock’s co-defendant Salim Said owned, was serving lunches under the food program and that S&S could serve suppers.

Prosecutors say that Safari, which was located about a block from S&S, siphoned an additional $16 million from the programs.

Hassan recounted that a Feeding Our Future employee told her that she could serve 2,500 meals a day starting immediately. 

On computer screens, lead prosecutor Joe Thompson displayed one of the many meal count sheets that Hassan had approved.

“That’s not true,” Hassan said while wiping away tears. “We never served 2,500.” Hassan added that it was a big mistake and “I’m not happy today. I feel shame.”

Hassan said she spent $5 million of the fraud proceeds on a block-long commercial building on East Lake Street in Minneapolis that included a banquet hall.

Thompson then played a video recorded at that building in 2021 where more than a dozen women are seen celebrating after a Ramsey County judge sided with Bock in a lawsuit, and the Minnesota Department of Education was forced to resume payments to Feeding Our Future that it had put on hold because of fraud concerns. 

In the clip, Bock is seen sitting in a chair while more than a dozen other women, including Hassan’s business partner Sahra Nur, chant Bock’s name. Hassan testified that one woman in the video recited a traditional Somali celebratory poem before another handed Bock a plaque.

Hassan added that Nur asked her and others who operated meal sites under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship to each give Bock a $2,000 “donation.”

“What did you think would happen if you refused to give the donation?” Thompson asked.

“If I say no, I’m not getting any more money,” Hassan replied.

Prosecutors allege that Bock operated a “pay to play” scheme, and demanded that the managers of businesses and nonprofits that Feeding Our Future sponsored pay her kickbacks.

Kenneth Udoibok, Bock’s defense attorney, has argued that meal site managers, catering company operators and employees at Feeding Our Future deceived Bock, and that she tried to prevent fraud in the food programs.

On cross examination, Udoibok asked Hassan if she ever told anyone at Feeding Our Future that “your numbers were not good numbers.”

“They can see,” Hassan replied. “They know we don’t have that much food. They have a brain, I don’t have to talk.”

Udoibok also questioned FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer, who’s been investigating Feeding Our Future since 2021. On cross examination, Udoibok asked Wilmer if there was evidence that Bock ever processed any fraudulent food claims.

The agent replied that investigators uncovered ample evidence that Bock submitted phony claims. In the first two weeks of the trial, prosecutors have shown jurors multiple six- and seven-figure checks, signed by Bock, to operators of purported meal sites.

In response to questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs, Wilmer took a swipe at the defense’s contention that Bock was trying to stop fraud.

Wilmer said that Bock refused to continue submitting reimbursement claims for Brava Cafe in Minneapolis, one of the sites that Feeding Our Future had sponsored. Wilmer testified that after Brava’s owner, Hanna Marekegn, refused to pay $1.5 million in kickbacks, Bock accused Marekegn of “purported fraud.”

Marekegn, 42, was among the first defendants to plead guilty in the wider case in which prosecutors would ultimately charge 70 people. In 2022, soon after the initial batch of indictments were unsealed, Marekegn admitted stealing $7.1 million from the child nutrition programs and paying more than $150,000 in kickbacks to a Feeding Our Future employee in exchange for its sponsorship.

On Thursday prosecutors also asked FBI Special Agent Jared Kary to return to the witness stand. Kary testified previously that in late 2021, agents set up surveillance cameras outside several suspicious meal distribution sites to determine whether the meal reimbursement requests from those sites bore any resemblance to reality.

Kary said that the FBI placed one of those cameras outside a single-story cinder block building on Columbus Avenue along the Midtown Greenway where Feeding Our Future allegedly sponsored two meal distribution sites and claimed to serve thousands of children each day including on Thanksgiving.

The agent testified that the only notable activity at the building was on Dec. 1, 2021, when someone in a white SUV pulled up and tried to break in. The FBI’s camera was recording as Minneapolis Police responded. But Kary said nobody came there to deliver or pick up food.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Ebert showed jurors images of the desolate building along with meal reimbursement forms that requested payment for 4,000 daily meals.

“These meal counts were ridiculous,“ Kary said. “Claiming that amount on Thanksgiving Day when a lot of things are closed, it was unbelievable.”

Ebert then showed jurors emails that Bock sent to the Minnesota Department of Education in the months before the FBI began its undercover surveillance. MDE officials had asked Bock why certain meal sites were at apartment and office buildings.

Regarding the Columbus Avenue location, Bock wrote, “These are all Feeding Our Future sites. We are operating them.”

“We have verified that it is different youth being served at each of the locations in the building,” Bock wrote later.

Ebert then showed jurors a list of the children that Feeding Our Future claimed to have served at the building.

“I don’t believe these children are real,” Kary said.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.