Forty-seven people from the state of Minnesota, in the north of the United States, were prosecuted for having participated in a massive fraud to an aid plan linked to the covid-19 pandemic for an amount of 240 million dollars, the authorities said on Tuesday. authorities.
“Today’s indictments outline a heinous plot to steal public funds meant to care for children in need, in what is the worst fraud scheme yet uncovered in a pandemic relief plan,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The Justice Department claimed the defendants diverted tens of millions of dollars spent under the Federal Child Nutrition Program to feed children in need during the COVID pandemic.
Among those charged is Aimee Bock, 41, the founder and CEO of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit organization that sponsored the federal Child Nutrition Program.
“Feeding Our Future employees recruited individuals and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout the state of Minnesota,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“These sites, created and operated by the defendants and others, claimed to serve meals to thousands of children a day,” he said. Instead, they submitted fake bills and fraudulent meal tally sheets using fake children’s names.
According to the Justice Department, Feeding Our Future opened more than 250 sites across the state of Minnesota during the pandemic.
“The defendants used the proceeds of their fraudulent scheme to purchase luxury vehicles, residential and commercial real estate” in various US states but also abroad, such as in Kenya and Turkey, “and to finance international travel,” authorities said.
The defendants face a variety of charges ranging from wire fraud to federal program bribery to money laundering.
