Tuesday March 4, 2025
Aimee Bock’s text messages compared her nonprofit to the mob, and referenced loading a gun in response to criticism from a state official.
Feeding Our Future’s former executive director, Aimee Bock (center), enters the federal courthouse on February 10, 2025, for opening statements in her trial. Her attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, is pictured on the far left side. Credit: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal
Aimee Bock pushed back as food site operators, state officials and members of the public questioned Feeding Our Future’s legitimacy.
“I’m going to show them how real bosses play,” Bock wrote in a 2021 text message to her alleged co-conspirator.
Prosecutors presented several of Bock’s text messages at her federal trial Monday in an attempt to show that she never investigated concerns about fraud in her nonprofit. Instead, she threatened and filed lawsuits against people who spoke out, and got a social media post alleging fraud against her taken down. Her text messages compared her nonprofit to the “mob,” and referenced “loading the gun in case” in reaction to criticism from a state official.
FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer presented the text messages under direct questioning from prosecutors, showing that Bock allegedly threatened to cut money from food sites and warned people who were affiliated with anyone ratting her out to the public.
In 2021, as Feeding Our Future’s operations in the federal child nutrition program continued to expand to enormous levels, Bock got word that one of the food site operators was complaining.
“She said we don’t pay and what else?” Bock, Feeding Our Future’s then-executive director, texted her employee, Hadith Ahmed.
“Yes, that we r [sic] going down,” Hadith Ahmed replied in a text.
Hadith Ahmed begged Bock to “please please let the lawyer call and scare the [expletive] out of her.” Hadith Ahmed texted Bock that if that couldn’t happen, he would “hire someone to call her.”
The complaints came from Anab Awad, who used her nonprofit food site to defraud more than $11 million from the federal government. She was one of the first Feeding Our Future defendants to plead guilty in the case.
“He will call her in the morning,” Bock texted, referring to Feeding Our Future’s attorney. “She is going to be terrified. We don’t play.”
“I fully support you. Destroyed those [expletive] playing FOF [Feeding Our Future],” Hadith Ahmed, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the fraud, texted Bock.
“It’s on!” Bock replied. “We may have become the mob.”
In his cross-examination of Wilmer, Bock’s attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, suggested that many of Bock’s texts were “tongue in cheek.” Udoibok argued that the texts showed that Bock was concerned about defamatory statements against her and her nonprofit. He also suggested that Bock investigated fraud allegations against Feeding Our Future on her own.
The texts were revealed Monday in the fourth week of testimony in Bock’s trial. Bock is the alleged ringleader of a $250 million fraud scheme, and faces three counts of wire fraud and one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and bribery. Former Safari Restaurant co-owner Salim Said is being jointly tried with Bock.
The alleged fraud involved Feeding Our Future receiving federal funds through the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). Feeding Our Future then distributed those funds to food vendors and food sites, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several organizations reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did, or simply never served any at all, in order to receive more federal reimbursement dollars, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors presented the texts to argue that when Bock was presented with fraud concerns within her organization, she didn’t investigate or stop it, and instead, pushed back and kept the fraud going.
Bock was defiant again in 2021 when Minnesota Department of Education assistant commissioner Daron Korte spoke about “integrity” concerns and a “fraud risk” with Minnesota-based food sites and sponsors in the federal child nutrition program.
“Watkins is prepped with what we need to remind our friend who the [expletive] boss is,” Bock texted Ikram Mohamed, who worked at Feeding Our Future, in response to Korte’s public comments.
Watkins is a reference to Feeding Our Future’s then-attorney, Rhyddid Watkins.
Ikram Mohamed, who is charged with fraud in the case and is awaiting trial, replied with a smiley face crying emoji.
“I don’t play,” Bock replied.
“I know and Your [sic] crazy,” Ikram Mohamed texted back.
“I protect this company and [my] people at all costs,” Bock texted.
“Your [sic] a real boss coming across peasants,” Ikram Mohamed wrote.
“Slap them with a defamation lawsuit,” Bock wrote. “Slander my company and my team. Get the [expletive] out of here.”
“Just let me massage their egos and apologize and then we’ll see if they still continue with their [expletive],” Ikram Mohamed wrote back.
“I am,” Bock wrote. “Just loading the gun in case.”
Bock would go on to unsuccessfully sue Korte for defamation.
By September 2021, Bock had big plans for Feeding Our Future, texting Ikram Mohamed that one of her goals that year was to make Feeding our Future “nationally recognized.” Bock started a fundraiser around that time to start Feeding Our Future II, which she has previously stated was formed to create food sites outside of Minnesota.
“We will rule the world, or at least MN,” Bock texted Ikram Mohamed.
But the following January, Bock saw a concerning post on Facebook from Abdihakim Osman Nur, a well-known member of the Somali community. In the Facebook post, Abdihakim Osman Nur wrote that he attended a Feeding Our Future employee’s lavish wedding where the employee received $100,000 worth of gold jewelry from food site operators who worked with Feeding Our Future.
Abdihakim Osman called the wedding “most amazing,” and alleged that all the gold was paid for with federal food money, according to evidence presented by Wilmer.
Abdihakim Osman Nur in the post alleged that Feeding Our Future was “forging the names of children they are supposed to serve,” and added that the person who runs the organization is “a lady named Aimee.”
“We cannot close our eyes to such corruption that will put our entire community in the news as fraudsters, criminals, when there are only a few bad apples,” Abdihakim Osman Nur wrote.
The following day, a furious Bock texted Salim Said about the post. Bock referred to Abdihakim Osman Nur as Safari Restaurant’s “social media guy.”
“Explain to me why the [expletive] your social media guy is blasting FOF [Feeding Our Future] and my staff all over social media??” Bock texted Salim Said. “That man better get his facts straight or he will be joining me in court. I do not play when it comes to my team or my company.”
“OK,” Salim Said texted back.
Bock took particular offense with Abdihakim Osman Nur using her name and Feeding Our Future’s name — “One of my employees gets married and now it’s proof that I’m a fraud???” she texted — and threatened to “shut down the entire program and every site.”
“Clean that [expletive] up,” she added.
Wilmer, the FBI agent, testified that Bock succeeded in getting Abdihakim Osman Nur’s Facebook post taken down.
Prosecutors also used Bock’s texts and other emails to argue that she sued MDE in 2020 to keep fraud going. Bock sued the department after it grew suspicious of the growing number of food sites and slowed down its processing of the sites’ applications to enroll in the program.
Bock’s lawsuit accused the department of racism, noting that Feeding Our Future contracted with mostly East African-run food sites. Wilmer testified that Bock’s allegation of racism was a tactic “used to fight back against scrutiny of their food sites.” He noted how a previous witness who participated in the fraud testified last week that “the community was used as a shield against scrutiny of the program.”
In one email chain from May 2020, an education department official questioned whether two food sites at the same address would end up serving the same kids.
“That question, to me, is the epitome of systemic racism,” Watkins, Feeding Our Future’s attorney, wrote in response.
The sites in question included a Hopkins building that housed Sambusa King restaurant. The owner of Sambusa King, Abdulkadir Awale, testified earlier in the trial that both sites were conducting fraud by submitting fake meal counts and fake invoices.
When MDE ultimately approved both of the sites to participate in the federal food program, Watkins wrote an MDE official that he wouldn’t file a lawsuit as long as MDE processed applications quickly.
“I equally hope MDE understands that the one and only reason allegations of racism will not be sprawled across the news tomorrow is because of your efforts,” Watkins wrote.
Prosecutors questioned the sincerity of Bock’s racism argument by showing texts she sent to Salim Said about a food supplier flashing stacks of money in his Instagram photos.
“This little boy flexing like he is some rapper,” Bock texted to Salim Said. “Boy sells carrots. Get real.”
