Feds: Fraud ringleader leaked documents from jail



the Feeding Our Future fraud case

Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis are asking a judge to prohibit convicted fraudster Aimee Bock from speaking with her two adult sons from jail after she allegedly directed the men to send sensitive evidence from her case to elected officials and the news media ahead of her May 21 sentencing.

In March 2025, a jury found Bock and restaurateur Salim Said guilty of charges including wire fraud and bribery for their roles in a scheme to steal around $250 million from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic by submitting false reimbursement claims for meals.

Because of the scale of the theft, Bock could face life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Bock is among 79 defendants charged in the wider case since September 2022, which prosecutors say was the nation’s largest pandemic-era fraud scheme.

The investigation has since led to fraud charges in connection with several Medicaid programs in Minnesota. Bock is white, but most of her co-defendants in the Feeding Our Future case are Somali-American. National attention to the case in late 2025 prompted racist comments from President Donald Trump along with increased immigration enforcement targeting the community, though the vast majority are naturalized U.S. citizens.

A man points to a woman sitting down
A prosecutor points to Aimee Bock during the Feeding Our Future trial on Feb. 10, 2025.
Cedric Hohnstadt

The government has secured 65 convictions, largely through guilty pleas. Of the 13 people sentenced, Abdiaziz Farah, another key player, received 28 years, the longest prison term handed down so far. Farah could face additional time when he’s sentenced separately for his role in an attempt to bribe a juror during his 2024 trial.

In a document filed on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Murphy and Rebecca Kline allege that Bock, 45, the founder of the defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future, violated a 2022 protective order from U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel that requires all parties to the case to hold most evidence in the case “in strict confidentiality.”

Murphy and Kline say that on April 2, an unnamed Minnesota state representative received two emails from a Proton Mail address. The sender, “Daisy Hill” claimed that “Tim Walz, Keith Ellison and the Minnesota Department of Education intentionally set Feeding Our Future and Aimee Bock up as a scapegoat.”

A March 17 email to MPR News from a sender with the same name includes identical language. In a subsequent message, the sender promised to send “examples of fraud in MN that were identified and stopped by Aimee Bock and Feeding Our Future.”

The emailer later sent files including screenshots of text messages, other communications, and audio recordings that Bock apparently made of conversations with operators of meal sites. MPR News did not verify the authenticity of the documents shared in the anonymous emails until the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office leveled the fresh allegations against Bock in the Tuesday court filing.

MPR News replied to the “Daisy Hill” address on Tuesday to request comment about the government’s new allegations.

Kenneth Udoibok, Bock’s defense attorney, said in an email reply to MPR News that his client’s sons “in an inartful way” are “hoping that the media and the legislative branch see their mom’s plight. Aimee is not trying to harm or intimidate anyone; rather, she wants the whole truth out before the legislature and the president. She’s crying for help!!!”

In their motion, the prosecutors also recount that on April 21, they learned that a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter contacted an attorney for a cooperating witness in the case and said that “they had obtained copies of reports of two of the witnesses’ law enforcement interviews” and intended to quote from them in an article about “the conduct of certain uncharged individuals.”

Murphy and Kline write that they learned through another attorney that the reporter “had claimed to have over one hundred law enforcement interview reports” and that given their nature “they could only have come from the government’s discovery disclosures,” in violation of the protective order.

three people enter a federal courthouse
Aimee Bock (center), founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future arrives at the Minneapolis federal courthouse on March 19, 2025, in Minneapolis.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News

Bock has been held in the Sherburne County Jail for more than a year as she awaits sentencing. Citing recorded jail calls, prosecutors say Bock directed her son, Camden Bock, 20, to download documents from her case from a Dropbox account and send them to elected officials and news reporters.

“Her purpose for doing so can best be described as a public relations campaign — to seek to minimize her starring role in pilfering the Federal Child Nutrition Program while casting the ‘real’ blame for the rampant fraud on the Walz administration, state administrators and uncharged individuals,” Murphy and Kline write in their filing.

On March 16, the day before MPR News received the first email from “Daisy Hill,” Bock allegedly directed her son to download documents that she believed would show that she tried to combat fraud in the nonprofit she once led.

“She told Camden to remove the trial exhibit stickers, and other markings indicating the documents came from her federal criminal case, before emailing them from a newly created Proton Mail account to ‘all republicans [sic] and the media,’” the prosecutors write.

In late March, “Bock told Camden to send the files to ‘Republicans in DC,’ especially the ‘guy who told [Minnesota Attorney General Keith] Ellison he should be in jail’ and the ‘right wing people that [President] Trump follows.’”

On April 1, Bock allegedly told her son Cale Bock, 19, that a Star Tribune reporter had been planning a “whole story on [an uncharged individual] and why she never got indicted,” and explained that Camden used an email account with a “fake name.”

In a later conversation, when Camden voiced concerns that speaking to the media might result in a longer sentence, Bock allegedly replied “they want to sentence me to life anyway.”

In an April 19 call with an unidentified person, according to prosecutors, Bock said that “someone had given the Star Tribune reporter “every interview the FBI did with people.”

Murphy and Kline write that they can’t say “with absolute certainty whether Bock is the person directly responsible” for leaking cooperating witness statements to the newspaper, “it is clear that she was leaking other protected documents” to the media and is endangering “the safety of those witnesses who have chosen to come forward and speak to law enforcement.”

The prosecutors are asking Judge Brasel to prohibit Bock from accessing her Dropbox account and surrender all copies of any protected files in her control, including Camden Bock’s computer. The government is also seeking to prohibit Bock from “any form of contact” with her sons prior to her sentencing hearing.

Brasel ordered Bock’s attorney to respond to the government’s request by 5 p.m. Wednesday. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.



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A Republican lawmaker charged in an alcohol-related driving offense won’t have to appear in court again until after the Legislature adjourns for the year.

A June 10 arraignment hearing is set for Rep. Elliott Engen, a Lino Lakes Republican who faces three misdemeanor charges following an arrest early Friday. He was stopped for speeding and other infractions in White Bear Lake; officers detected alcohol and he later tested well above the legal limit for driving, according to a citation.

Engen has apologized for a lapse in judgment; he promised to learn from his actions and “do better.” Aside from being a second-term legislator, he is also a candidate for state auditor.

A second lawmaker, GOP Rep. Walter Hudson, was in Engen’s truck at the time of the stop and an open bottle of alcohol was found in a rear seat. Hudson, a second-term legislator from Albertville, was in possession of a permitted handgun, which could cause him legal problems if he is determined to have been intoxicated.

Police officers wrote in their report that Hudson disclosed he had the gun as the truck was being searched. The report said police took the firearm for safekeeping and said he could pick it up at a later time, which Hudson agreed to.

“I regret the poor decisions that were made during this incident, and commend the White Bear Police Department for their professional response,” Hudson said in a written statement. “I’m grateful that no harm was done to ourselves and others.”

Two lawmakers stand and look around
Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, (center) and Rep. Bidal Duran, R-Bemidji, (right) join other Republican lawmakers gather in the House chambers Jan. 27, 2025.
Tim Evans for MPR News file

A third, unidentified passenger was in the truck as well, according to police. Hudson and that person were transferred to the police department until they could arrange rides.

The Minnesota lawmakers had been at the Capitol late into the evening Thursday as the House debated procedural motions on gun, immigration and social media legislation. The motions failed on 67-67 votes.

There is no indication yet that either Hudson nor Engen had been drinking on Capitol grounds, which would be a violation of a House rule against consumption of alcohol or drugs in spaces under that chamber’s control.

According to a White Bear Lake Police report, Engen initially said he had not been drinking when asked by the police officer who pulled him over — “nothing at all,” he is quoted as saying. He performed a field sobriety test, which the report says showed signs of impairment.

Engen gave a preliminary breath sample there, the report says, which estimated a 0.142 blood alcohol level. After he was taken by squad car to the police department “Engen spontaneously stated, ‘Sir, I had a drink three hours ago,’” the report says.

He told the Minnesota Star Tribune in an interview Monday that he had also consumed alcohol in the afternoon on Thursday as well.

Engen is charged with two impaired driving offenses and speeding. White Bear Lake police also said he was driving a vehicle with expired registration and an inoperable headlight.

Engen has not returned calls from MPR News. A court docket lists a “notice of appearance” on Tuesday.

He is being represented in the criminal case by Chris Madel, an Excelsior attorney who waged a brief Republican campaign for governor.



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