In Minnesota, the Department of Justice charged 47 people with stealing $250 million from a federal program that provides meals to low-income students.
47 people were charged in a fraud scheme.
The DOJ charged the defendants, most of whom are from Minnesota, with a massive scheme to defraud the Department of Agriculture's Federal Child Nutrition Program by misappropriating money that was intended as reimbursement.
According to prosecutors, the executive director of Feeding Our Future oversaw the scheme and recruited people to open more than 250 Federal Child Nutrition Program sites.
The defendants claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day just after the nutrition sites were formed, but in reality, they created shell companies to enroll in the program and to receive and laundered the proceeds.
The defendants allegedly obtained and distributed about $250 million in federal funds, which prosecutors say they used to purchase luxury vehicles, fund travel costs and buy real estate in Minnesota, Ohio and Kentucky.
Kenneth Udoibok told Forbes that he was surprised that Ms. Bock had been indicted because she did not deserve it.
The Federal Child Nutrition Program, which subsidizes meals in schools and other settings, was not affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Pandemic-related fraud can take advantage of federal assistance programs. The Covid-19 relief funding has been stolen as much as $100 billion since the beginning of the Pandemic in early 2020. The small business relief loans stolen using fraudulent identities were recovered by the Secret Service.
The FBI director said that the indictments described an egregious plot to steal public funds meant to care for children in need.
The Minnesota food scheme stole $250 million.
47 people are accused of stealing cash to feed needy kids in a scam.
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