The Midwest mother who masterminded the roughly $250 million Somali-linked fraud in Minnesota was sentenced to more than 41 years in prison on Thursday morning.

Aimee Bock, 45, was convicted last March of multiple counts involving conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery for her role in the Feeding Our Future scam, which prosecutors called the country’s largest Covid-era fraud.

Feeding Our Future received about $250 million in federal funds while falsely claiming to be serving 91 million meals for hungry children, prosecutors said.

Instead, the taxpayer money was used to finance expensive lifestyles, including Bock’s.

US District Judge Nancy Brasel made an example of Bock as she sentenced her to prison and admonished her in front of the packed Minneapolis courtroom.

‘This was a vortex of fraud and you were its epicenter,’ Brasel told Bock. ‘A sentence of less than 500 months would not do justice to the people of Minnesota, who in a very real sense were the victims of this fraud.’

Assistant US Attorney Rebecca Kline told the court that the government believed that ‘disabling Aimee Bock from ever meaningfully participating in society ever again [was] the only just outcome.’

Before being sentenced, Bock was in tears as she apologized and said, ‘I don’t have the words to express just how horrible I feel,’ according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. ‘I know I’m responsible.’

Aimee Bock, 45, was sentenced to more than 41 years in prison after being convicted of masterminding the US’ largest Covid-era scam by lining her pockets with funds meant to feed needy kids

Bock’s attorney Kenneth Udoibok had asked for a sentence of 37 months

Most of the defendants charged in connection with the scam are Somali and hold American citizenship, though Bock is white. 

Kline added that Bock was ‘the leader of this entire scheme.’

She also noted Bock’s ‘absolute refusal to take a single inkling of responsibility’ in the scam.

‘Aimee Bock’s conduct was not an impulsive one-time error,’ Kline said. ‘It was sustained, organized and aggressively defended.’

The maximum prison sentence for Bock was 100 years.

Bock was the founder and executive director of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit, which participated in the Federal Child Nutrition Program, according to prosecutors.

As part of the scam, sites created by the nonprofit claimed to be serving meals to thousands of hungry children per day within weeks of being created.

Shell companies were allegedly created to receive and launder the money obtained through the fraud.

Brasel said that Bock ‘established protocols’ for the fraud to go undetected and said she was ‘acting on behalf of a fraud scheme.’

Brasel added that Bock created a fake board of directors alongside with accompanying fake board minutes.

Bock had argued that Feeding Our Future provided meals worth between $80 million and $132 million, which Brasel rejected.

In total, the loss in the scam was deemed to be $243 million.

Bock was convicted last March of multiple counts involving conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery for her role in the Feeding Our Future scam

Bock was the ‘leader’ of the Feeding Our Future scheme, Assistant US Attorney Rebecca Kline told the Minneapolis courtroom

The judge also said that Bock had given false testimony and repeatedly perjured herself during the legal case.

That included saying that she had given her boyfriend about $1 million for renovating Feeding Our Future’s offices in St. Anthony.

Bock’s ritzy expenses with the misappropriated money allegedly included spending $600,000 of taxpayer cash on treats while spending time with her then-boyfriend, a 41-year-old man called Empress Malcom Watson Jr., according to a search warrant filed in the US District Court for Minnesota viewed by the Daily Mail. 

Watson was not charged in connection with the fraud. However, last September, he was was charged with two felony counts of filing false or fraudulent individual income tax returns, one count of failing to file individual income tax return and three counts of failing to pay income tax. 

Investigators began diving into Watson’s tax history after they received a tip ‘related to a separate criminal investigation of his significant other,’ according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

The state agency said Watson’s income was around $1 million between 2020 and 2022, with funds coming from his work ‘at his significant other’s business’ as well as his own remodeling firm.

Minnesota US Attorney Daniel Rosen had pushed for Bock to spend 50 years in prison, as that ‘appropriately reflects the seriousness of [her] crimes.’

‘The brazen and staggering nature of her crimes has shaken Minnesota to its core, leaving lasting damage and eroding public trust,’ Rosen said.

‘Her actions have permanently altered the state, and not for the better,’ he added.

Bock allegedly spent thousands of dollars on ritzy vacations with her then-boyfriend, 41-year-old Empress Malcom Watson Jr

Bock as seen in her mugshot. She cried as she apologized in court on Thursday morning before being sentenced to 500 months in prison

Bock’s attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, had argued for greater leniency and instead recommended a sentence of 37 months, or about three years.

Udoibok told the court Thursday that Bock was a ‘good person’ who ‘meant well.’

‘She gave access to some people she shouldn’t have, he said.

He argued that Bock’s ‘personal gain was not significant,’ having obtained $1.2 million from the scheme.

A day before her sentencing, Bock gave a self-pitying interview from Sherburne County Jail brazenly claiming she did not ‘intentionally, knowingly allow fraud to happen.’

‘Unfortunately, I trusted people that were not trustworthy,’ Bock told KSTP. ‘I believed people when I shouldn’t have, and for that, I am responsible.’

Bock was asked whether understood that her answers made it seem like she was not accepting fault.

‘Yes and no,’ she told the outlet.

Bock said she did not ‘want to shift the blame’ but claimed she did not know the checks submitted were fraudulent.

Bock added that all the checks had been ‘deemed valid when we submitted it.’

She said: ‘Under my leadership, that was missed. I accept responsibility and blame for that. It was never intentional.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Bock’s lawyer, Udoibok, for comment on her sentence.