Billions in taxpayers’ money has been stolen; millions could have gone to terrorists—an allegation lawmakers are asking federal prosecutors to investigate.
Networks of fraudsters, many from Minnesota’s Somali community, exploited welfare programs and raked in billions of taxpayer dollars, according to authorities.
At least three major scandals are involved, one of which has been developing for years. Two others recently surfaced. Then came new revelations that inspired presidential action and touched off calls for further investigation.
Here is what we know about the multifaceted controversy drawing national attention—and greater scrutiny—to the North Star State.
Biggest Scandal of Its Kind
The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that a Minnesota nonprofit called Feeding Our Future and its affiliates stole more than $240 million in federal funds, in what constituted the nation’s largest COVID-19 pandemic relief scheme.
“This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” then-U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger said in 2022 when the first 47 people were charged.
The defendants’ haul was used to buy “luxury cars, houses, jewelry, and coastal resort property abroad,” Luger said.
Since then, dozens more have been charged; on Nov. 24, the DOJ announced that it had charged a 78th defendant connected to Feeding Our Future.
So far, about 50 defendants, including the nonprofit group’s founder, Aimee Bock, have been convicted; Bock is being held in federal custody awaiting sentencing.
All but a handful of Feeding Our Future defendants have Somali names; at least one formed a company called “Minnesota’s Somali Community.” The state is home to the nation’s largest group of Somalis, constituting about 1 percent of its population, according to multiple sources, including World Population Review.
Those immigrants come from a nation steeped in public sector corruption. Somalia ranks as the world’s second-most-corrupt nation, according to the 2024 corruption perceptions index. That ranking, compiled by Transparency International, gave Somalia nine points on a scale on which 100 means “very clean”; only South Sudan was worse, with eight points. The United States scored 65, while the world’s least corrupt country, Denmark, earned 90 points.
How Could This Happen?
Because schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials relaxed rules for the Federal Child Nutrition Program and began allowing non-educational organizations to feed needy children.
Bad actors figured out how to take advantage. Feeding Our Future recruited people to open more than 250 nutrition program sites throughout Minnesota. These locations “fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed,” the DOJ said in 2022 when announcing the first wave of defendants.
To enroll in the program, and to receive and launder proceeds of the scheme, the defendants “created dozens of shell companies” in attempts to hide their fraud, which included submitting fake documentation, the DOJ alleged.
Alarm bells started ringing after officials saw how fast the program was expanding for Feeding Our Future. In 2021, the organization received and disbursed $200 million—59 times more than the $3.4 million it handled in 2019, pre-COVID-19 pandemic.
A 2024 special review, conducted by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, found that the state Department of Education “failed to act on warning signs … prior to the start of the alleged fraud.” Those warning signs included numerous complaints and red flags raised about Feeding Our Future, which began operating in 2016. The department also did not enforce program requirements and “was ill-prepared” to take effective action, the report states.
The state’s education commissioner, Willie L. Jett II, defended his agency’s oversight of the programs. He said the agency reported suspicions and concerns to law enforcement.
“What happened with Feeding Our Future was a travesty—a coordinated, brazen abuse of nutrition programs that exist to ensure access to healthy meals for low-income children,” Jett said in the report.
He also said, “The responsibility for this flagrant fraud lies with the indicted and convicted fraudsters.”
By Janice Hisle
