UPDATE 1-Minnesota hunger non-profit leader gets 41 years in prison for $250 million fraud scheme

The leader of ‌a Minnesota ​non-profit group was sentenced to 41 years in prison on Thursday after she was convicted last year of ‌being the ringleader of a $250 million scheme to defraud a federally funded child nutrition program.

Aimee Bock, 45, was charged in 2022 with using her non-profit group Feeding Our Future to ‌enact what the Justice Department said was the largest known fraud against the ‌U.S. government's relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 70 other people have been charged alongside Bock. The fraud has been often invoked by U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, as part of ⁠his ​rationale for targeting ⁠Minnesota, led by Democrats, for an aggressive surge in arresting and deporting immigrants earlier this year. On ⁠the same day as Bock's sentencing, the U.S. Department of Justice announced new charges against 15 ​people accused of defrauding Medicaid and other welfare programs in Minnesota of $90 million.

Bock ⁠cried as she addressed U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis, the ⁠Minnesota ​Star Tribune reported: "I don't have the words to express just how horrible I feel. I know I'm responsible." Federal prosecutors had sought 50 years in prison. In sentencing ⁠Bock to 500 months, or 41 years and eight months, Brasel said a lengthy ⁠sentence was necessary ⁠because of Bock's central role.

"This is a vortex of fraud, and you were at the epicenter," the judge said, according to ‌the Star ‌Tribune.

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