Feeding Our Future: Aimee Bock testifies, Day 2

Your correspondent was there. Defendant No. 1 in the sprawling free-food scandal, Aimee Bock, took the stand for over six hours today at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.

The Feeding Our Future founder and CEO had begun her defense testimony late Tuesday afternoon. She appeared for about an hour before court adjourned for a pre-planned four-day break.

Testifying against the advice of her attorney, Bock spent Tuesday afternoon relaying her background and the inner workings of her nonprofit food charity.

Bock and one co-defendant — Salim Said, Defendant No. 3 — are currently on trial. Said, though present today, did not feature in any of the discussions.

In six hours today, Bock, now aged 44, and her attorney covered a lot of ground. The early morning session saw Bock describe how a free-food-distribution nonprofit is supposed to operate under the rules of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the state Dept. of Education (MDE).

To the extent that there was a point to this line of questioning, it was an attempt to portray Bock as a competent, if too trusting, executive of a large and fast-growing enterprise. At its peak, the nonprofit employed a staff of 100 and oversaw nearly 300 food distribution sites.

In her telling, her best efforts to feed hungry children were thwarted by crooked underlings, specifically co-defendant Nos. 2 and 46.

Some individual counts in the indictment against Bock were discussed and individual emails and other documents considered, in what appeared to be a search for exonerating technicalities.

After the lunch break, a different Aimee Bock emerged. Gone was the super-competent girlboss, replaced by Nancy Drew, girlboss detective. We heard about Bock’s covert surveillance and unannounced site visits at suspect distribution sites. She claims to have ejected around 10 vendors and some 50 sites from her network. She claims to have thwarted another 100 or so substandard sites from beginning operations and a further hundred or so from even applying.

In her telling, Aimee Bock, singlehandedly provided quality control for the statewide food program, despite an indifferent and uncaring government. That government then turned on our heroine, taking away her company, her livelihood, her car, her house, her phone, her apartment, leaving a tearful Bock jobless and living with her parents.

And to her everlasting regret, those banned vendors resumed operations under her less ethical competitors.

A portion of the day was given over to detailing Bock’s long list of grievances against MDE.

Bock detailed her personal investigations into Defendant Nos. 47, 58, and 60. You will recall No. 58, the award-winning entrepreneur Ayan Abukar:

Additionally, Bock claimed to have kicked out of her network the organizations associated with Defendant Nos. 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 31, 32, 52, 56, 59, 61, 62, 65 and others that I’m sure I missed. So many were thrown under the bus, I couldn’t identify all of the bodies.

But later, Bock’s attorney showed her checks written to her, which are alleged to be bribes/kickbacks from other defendants (including, but not limited to, organizations associated with Nos. 24/25/28 and 67). Somehow, she didn’t detect any malfeasance from these clients, and explained away the off-line payments as being for legitimate, if unrelated, services rendered.

Bock spent an extended period describing her personal investigation into Youth Leadership Academy, d/b/a Gar Gaar Family Services. Gar Gaar was a former Feeding Our Future vendor turned competitor and has not been accused of any wrongdoing, although Gar Gaar is no longer in operation.

Sahan Journal notes the incongruity of her claims. On the one hand, vigilant investigations, and:

Yet the nonprofit still allegedly allowed $250 million of fraud to occur on its watch, according to prosecutors. 

A portion of the now infamous June 2021 “celebration” video was shown again to the jury. Bock described how the celebration was hosted at Benadir Hall, an event center associated with a different group of defendants. Bock explained how the event featured a host of luminaries, including State Sen. Omar Fateh, City Council member Jamal Osman, a staffer from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s office, and a representative from the political nonprofit ISAIAH.

The day ended with a tour of swag found during the FBI search of Bock’s then-home in Rosemount in January 2022. Distinctions were made between her swag, modest and tasteful, and the swag belonging to her estranged, no-good, cheating louse of a former live-in boyfriend Empress Malcolm Watson, Jr. (his real name). Watson himself has not been charged with any wrongdoing in this case.

Much time was spent detailing the transactions behind the purchase of Watson’s brand-new Mercedes-Benz SUV (model GLE 43, tragically lost in a single-car rollover accident in July 2024) and a used Porshe.

As tasteless and unfaithful Watson may have been as a life partner, Bock praised Watson’s skills and work as a craftsman renovating her corporate offices in St. Anthony. He apparently earned every penny of the $906,000 she paid him over the course of a year as a contractor, in her estimation.

There is some chance that Bock’s cross-examination could begin as early as tomorrow.

Bock will continue on the stand for more direct examination beginning Thursday morning.