FOF fallout: Partners in Nutrition loses court appeal
Repeat after me: It’s a $300 million+ scandal. MPR News has been monitoring some of the other litigation spun off from the sprawling Feeding Our Future scandal.
Partners in Nutrition, d/b/a Partners in Quality Care (PIQC), was the second-largest nonprofit operating in the free-food programs that were at the heart of the state’s biggest scandal. In fact, Feeding Our Future itself was a spin-off of the slightly older Partners. Defendant No. 1, Aimee Bock, was a co-founder of both groups but had a falling out with her former business partner.
Despite being prominently mentioned in court filings and during courtroom trials, neither Partners nor anyone associated with the nonprofit has been charged with any wrongdoing.
Partners itself has gone out of business, shut down along with Feeding Our Future by the state Dept. of Education (MDE) back in January 2022. Partners has been appealing that MDE decision since, a decision which also disqualified the leadership of Partners from participating separately.
The most recent tax return filed for Partners (fiscal year ending Sept. 2024) indicates that the nonprofit still retains $18 million in net assets.
That lingering court appeal gave the nonprofit a last-gasp chance for reinstatement. MPR’s Matt Sepic reports:
A Twin Cities nonprofit investigated alongside Feeding Our Future in a scheme to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers has lost its bid to resume participation in a federally-funded child nutrition program.
The court is the state Court of Appeals, which issued its ruling on Monday. MPR notes about the overall size of the fraud:
FBI forensic accountants determined that around $40 million of that flowed through PIQC, and prosecutors say the $40 million figure is in addition to the approximately $250 million allegedly stolen by the operators of several hundred Feeding Our Future-sponsored meal distribution sites.
This finding is behind the recent statements of acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson upping the estimated amount of the free-food fraud. Thompson was quoted recently by the Star Tribune:
Prosecutors allege about $300 million was stolen, and that’s just the value of the fraud prosecutors have charged 72 people with so far. The actual total amount is probably closer to $500 million, Thompson said.
Please adjust your scorecards accordingly. MPR quotes Partners’ attorney making an important point:
In an email to MPR News on Wednesday, PIQC attorney Emily Asp writes that the nonprofit respects the judicial process but adds that MDE has been determined to cast blame for the fraud on PIQC while avoiding responsibility for its own oversight problems.
That doesn’t get her client off the hook, but she’s not wrong. MDE, under the leadership of Gov. Tim Walz, presided over the largest such fraud in American history. There has yet to be a full (or even partial) accounting of MDE’s errors and omissions during the scandal. Each time the subject is raised, the Walz Administration ducks the issue, citing ongoing court cases in the scandal.
True enough, but those criminal court cases will continue for years, as new defendants keep getting charged. The “blame MDE” defense has not worked for defendants convicted so far in the case (totaling 46, to date). It’s time for the agency to come clean.