MINNEAPOLIS — Federal authorities charged 47 folks in Minnesota with conspiracy and different counts in what they mentioned Tuesday was the most important fraud scheme but to make the most of the COVID-19 pandemic by stealing $250 million from a federal program that gives meals to low-income kids.
Prosecutors say the defendants created firms that claimed to offer meals to tens of 1000’s of youngsters throughout Minnesota, then sought reimbursement for these meals via the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s meals diet packages. Prosecutors say few meals have been really served, and the defendants used the cash to purchase luxurious automobiles, property and jewellery.
“This $250 million is the floor,” Andy Luger, the U.S. lawyer for Minnesota, mentioned at a information convention. “Our investigation continues.”
Many of the businesses that claimed to be serving meals have been sponsored by a nonprofit known as Feeding Our Future, which submitted the businesses’ claims for reimbursement. Feeding Our Future’s founder and government director, Aimee Bock, was amongst these indicted, and authorities say she and others in her group submitted the fraudulent claims for reimbursement and acquired kickbacks.
Bock’s lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok, mentioned the indictment “doesn’t indicate guilt or innocence.” He mentioned he wouldn’t remark additional till seeing the indictment.
In interviews after legislation enforcement searched a number of websites in January, together with Bock’s house and workplaces, Bock denied stealing cash and mentioned she by no means noticed proof of fraud.
Earlier this yr, the U.S. Department of Justice made prosecuting pandemic-related fraud a precedence. The division has already taken enforcement actions associated to greater than $8 billion in suspected pandemic fraud, together with bringing prices in additional than 1,000 legal circumstances involving losses in extra of $1.1 billion.
Federal officers repeatedly described the alleged fraud as “brazen,” and decried that it concerned a program supposed to feed kids who wanted assist throughout the pandemic. Michael Paul, particular agent accountable for the Minneapolis FBI workplace, known as it “an astonishing display of deceit.”
Luger mentioned the federal government was billed for greater than 125 million faux meals, with some defendants making up names for kids by utilizing a web based random title generator. He displayed one type for reimbursement that claimed a website served precisely 2,500 meals every day Monday via Friday — with no kids ever getting sick or in any other case lacking from this system.
“These children were simply invented,” Luger mentioned.
He mentioned the federal government has to date recovered $50 million in cash and property and expects to get well extra.
The defendants in Minnesota face a number of counts, together with conspiracy, wire fraud, cash laundering and bribery. Luger mentioned a few of them have been arrested Tuesday morning.
According to court docket paperwork, the alleged scheme focused the USDA’s federal youngster diet packages, which offer meals to low-income kids and adults. In Minnesota, the funds are administered by the state Department of Education, and meals have traditionally been supplied to children via instructional packages, equivalent to faculties or day care facilities.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”