Fraudster’s Lawyer Says Emails, Audio Show MN Officials Ignored Warnings

A woman convicted for her role in one of the largest COVID-era fraud schemes in U.S. history is now placing responsibility squarely on Minnesota’s political leadership, arguing that state officials ignored repeated warnings that could have stopped the abuse of a federally funded program.

Kenneth Udoibok, attorney for Aimee Bock—the founder of Feeding Our Future—said his client repeatedly alerted Minnesota regulators and the attorney general’s office in 2020 and 2021 about suspected fraud within the child nutrition reimbursement system. According to Udoibok, those warnings were ignored.

“The governor’s office is responsible ultimately for what his agencies do. He’s the governor, after all, and Feeding Our Future through Ms. Bock reported to MDE, one of his agencies, fraudulent organizations,” Udoibok said.

Speaking through her attorney, Bock claimed she raised red flags about irregularities during the pandemic, but state officials failed to act. That inaction, she argues, allowed the program to be exploited in what federal prosecutors later described as one of the most egregious pandemic fraud cases in the nation.

“That’s a fact, and his agencies did nothing about that. The Attorney General’s office was invited by Feeding Our Future to come to Feeding Our Future and review documents, boxes, close to 100 boxes of the operation of Feeding Our Future. They declined,” Udoibok said, according to NewsNation.

Bock was convicted in March 2025 of wire fraud and other charges connected to a staggering $250 million scheme—the largest known COVID-19 fraud case in the country.

Complicating matters further are audio recordings from 2021 obtained by NewsNation that appear to show Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison expressing sympathy for members of the Somali community—some of whom were later convicted in the Feeding Our Future case—during a discussion that included campaign donations.

In the recording, an unidentified man says:

“To protect and keep what we have, and the only way we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena, putting our votes where it needs to be, but most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place, and supporting candidates that will fight to protect our interests.”

“That’s right,” Ellison responds.

Later in the same recording, Ellison is heard saying:

“We are in the middle of the battle with the agencies now.”

Minutes later, he adds:

“Walz agrees with me that this piddly, stupid stuff running small people out of business is terrible.”

Toward the end of the meeting, Ellison says:

“Of course, I’m here to help,”
“Let’s go fight these people.”

The comments have fueled allegations of a possible quid pro quo, with critics arguing Ellison appeared willing to oppose state agencies while accepting political support from individuals connected to organizations later implicated in fraud.

Ellison has denied wrongdoing. In an April op-ed published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, he wrote:

“I took a meeting in good faith with people I didn’t know, and some turned out to have done bad things. I did nothing for them and took nothing from them.”

Testifying before the Minnesota House Oversight Committee in April, Ellison stated:

“I guess I don’t agree that I did anything wrong other than listen to people who ended up being liars.”

Udoibok, however, maintains that the convicted Somali immigrants did not operate alone, arguing that state officials witnessed the fraud, failed to intervene, and later misrepresented what they knew.

At the federal level, the Trump administration has made clear that accountability will extend beyond low-level defendants. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said investigators will pursue everyone involved, regardless of rank or geography.

“We follow the money, and we intend to follow it as much as we can, prosecute the individuals, no matter where they are, whether they are in the Minnesota government or they are sitting in East Africa, we will find them,” Bessent said at a press conference.

Federal prosecutors say the scheme relied on fabricated meal counts and inflated invoices, allowing defendants to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars intended to feed children during pandemic school closures.

More than 50 individuals have been charged in the sprawling investigation, with many already pleading guilty—while questions continue to mount about what Minnesota officials knew and when they knew it.