Co-defendant says Bock terminated her contract with Feeding Our Future after she refused $1.5M kickback

The owner of Brava Cafe in Minneapolis told jurors on Tuesday that she was terminated from the Federal Child Nutrition Program after refusing to pay over a million dollars to Aimee Bock.

Prosecutors say Aimee Bock, the former executive director of Feeding our Future, as well as her co-defendant, Salim Said, orchestrated the fraud worth $250 million in federal funding meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hanna Marekegn told jurors that she met a Feeding Our Future Employee, Abdikerm Eidleh, in September 2020. Eidleh then helped Marekegn enroll Brava Cafe in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under Feeding Our Future’s sponsorship.

Marekegn pleaded guilty to her role in the fraud and, as part of a plea deal, agreed to testify in the trial.

Through tears, she told jurors how she falsely claimed to serve around 4,000 meals per day, adding that “greed” drove her to do it.

As previously reported, she received over $5 million in reimbursements in total.

“She gave us the American Dream life,” she said about Bock and Feeding Our Future. “We were able to own houses, have cars, and were living very large.”

Marekegn also described paying kickbacks to Eidleh, and jurors were shown photos of checks made out to an entity connected to him — totaling over $100,000.

After for-profit entities were barred from participating in the food program, Brava Cafe became a vendor, claiming to deliver food to non-profits such as House of Refuge. Jurors were shown an invoice in which Brava Cafe billed House of Refuge $3.1 million — the invoice was forwarded to Feeding Our Future for reimbursement.

Marekegn said Bock called a series of meetings about the large invoice — at one of the meetings, Bock asked Marekegn to meet at a coffee shop instead of her office. She told Marekegn to leave her cell phone and Apple watch in her car.

At the meeting, Marekegn testified that Bock said she would submit the invoice if she could get half of the money — over $1.5 million — in cash.

“I was pretty shocked,” Marekegn told jurors. “That’s a lot of money to pay in cash.”

After Marekegn refused to pay Bock and walked out of the meeting, she said Bock terminated the contract.

Marekegn then became a vendor for the food program under another sponsor and submitted more fraudulent claims.

Next jurors heard from Genesis Alonzo, a former employee of Feeding Our Future. She testified about the data entry she did for the organization — uploading menus and invoices into a computer program. She said sometimes, the sites didn’t submit a menu or the numbers in the meal claims or invoices didn’t add up, but the reimbursements were approved anyway.

She also testified that Feeding ur Future employees got $5,000 bonuses after Bock won her lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Health.

Jurors also heard from former FBI Special Agent Robert Blackmore and FBI Special Agent Valerie Eastwood, who assisted in executing the search warrants at Bock’s and Said’s homes, respectively.

In Bock’s home, Blackmore testified to finding large amounts of cash, designer handbags, a designer coat, several checks made out to School Age Consultants(an account with only her name on it), and more.

In Said’s home, Eastwood testified to finding documents relating to food sites, receipts for large payments to Salim Limited LLC, and more.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors called Shayne Driscoll, a business execution consultant at Wells Fargo, who testified about large cashier’s checks associated with Said.

You can find KSTP’s full coverage of the Feeding Our Future case here.