Nonprofit's Leader Convicted of Siphoning Off $240M in Federal Food Aid
51 comments
·March 21, 2025Willingham
doodlebugging
DOGE is not a group of auditors. If they had any use for auditors they wouldn't have eliminated all the Offices of Inspectors General where all the auditors routinely work to identify fraud, waste, and abuse of federal monies and programs. OIGs have the responsibility to audit their own agency's operations and results and to make changes to processes in their agencies that improve results. They also have responsibility to audit any individual or entity at any level that receives benefits from their agency programs to insure compliance and root out fraud, waste and abuse. They are the watchdogs that keep things honest and make sure the programs are working according to congressionally mandated guidelines.
DOGE is complicit in fraud. They were never intended to root out corruption or fraud. They are a political tool of a corrupt administration. Once their usefulness has passed they will be tossed aside with few exceptions (those most loyal to the criminals) and offered as defendants in future prosecutions so that those who engineered this massive fraud can escape accountability using them as fall guys.
abhinai
We don’t have to make this political.
doodlebugging
I think you responded to the wrong post in the thread if you are concerned about someone making something political.
EDIT: You may be able to read my other post on this thread. It was flagged almost immediately, probably by someone whose feelings were hurt. Maybe their self-confidence suffered, I don't know. The truth can be like that sometimes, really challenging everything you thought you knew.
I come into the conversation from the standpoint of someone whose spouse is an auditor for an OIG in a federal government agency. Having spent several decades with an inside view, I have an understanding of how things work when they are done legally.
abenga
You are discussing government waste. Hard to imagine anything more political.
qingcharles
I was in jail during the pandemic. I would say 80% of the people I was locked up with managed to get at least $10K a piece in PPP loans. There was a number they would call from the jail phone and they would give them all their personal info; the agent would receive $14K, take $4K and pass on the other $10K. I saw some people manage to get two or three hits at it.
sudo_gopnik
It will never be found - the amount of stories I heard of firms and business pocketing the relief money and closing shop anyways is outrageous. The government was way to loose with how these funds were distributed for what they expected of those recipients.
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lubujackson
Maybe they will find that 1.4 billion missing from Tesla while they're at it.
jeffbee
The fact that this is your ratio should have told you, if you engaged your brain, that this was one of the most efficient and above-board programs of all time.
blitzar
This is a prosecution from under the previous administration.
debacle
I have seen some local suits for smaller PPP loans.
sudo_gopnik
I was just in a heated discussion on this recently - the current focus on the federal DOE itself being "fraudulent" is in my opinion completely misdirected at where fraud most likely is to occur, and is fully embodied here. The Federal DOE ultimately distributes supplementary (NOT supplant) funds earmarked for specific resources (e.g. food insecurity, special need population) to state education agencies where the actual procurement happens, and further these states decide ultimately who actually receives the money, who is on the approved vendor list, etc.
Unfortunately I think most people will look no further than the headline and think the current administration is correct in their strong attack on federal institutions like the federal DOE, when this was a fraud perpetuated at the state level and caught only by federal oversight (FBI, Postal Service, IRS Criminal Division).
abhinai
That’s a good take!
blindriver
You're wrong. The whole point is that the DoA and its ilk like USAID just dumps money and then feigns plausible deniability.
Did you see Reed Hoffman's answer when asked if he funds lawfare against RFK Jr so that he both can't add his name to ballots as well as remove them? He said, well I just hand off the money but I can't control what happens after that. Which is utter bullshit. That's plausible deniability in full view.
https://x.com/sheislaurenlee/status/1830358688890024386
There can be accountability and there needs to be accountability. If DoA is the enabler of fraud when it pays hundreds of millions of dollars to its NGOs that it knows is engaged in fraud, then USAID is guilty. It can't distribute taxpayer money so easily and say it doesn't have any control over the actions.
metaphor
More details in the DoJ press release[1].
[1] https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/federal-jury-finds-feedin...
woodruffw
FTA: this case predates the current administration, and has nothing to do with any current claimed fraud-finding actions within the USG. As others have noted, the US has (had?) a robust anti-corruption system, one that is actively being gutted for political reasons.
AStonesThrow
See, only a few years ago I discovered that practically any agency which distributes "Food Boxes" around here is simply funded by the USDA to do it. Even the Catholic charity which I favor is operating exactly the same as the municipal agency and exactly the same as mental health clinics which give out food.
They may source the food differently and they may rely on volunteers or staff to handle the boxes and Dole them out, but every recipient signs the same acknowledgement form with the USDA's letterhead: that the recipient meets the eligibility requirements, namely a low income at a certain % of the Federal Poverty Level. Otherwise you don't qualify for Emergency Food.
I believe it was President George HW Bush who advanced the federal policy of "faith-based charity" initiatives in order to fill gaps in entitlements and State-administered welfare programs. In order to support the disestablishment of religion and a plurality of faiths in our nation, the USA is levying taxes to make available our funds to every single church, mosque, temple and synagogue which offers charity or outreach to the poor and marginalized. I am willing to bet that the majority could never sustain charitable works on member donations alone, and certainly not at scale to meet the demands of 2025.
Also there are plenty of secular, non-religious organizations which are nevertheless spurred to action and effect change according to their unique political, cultural, or ethnic ideologies. Mental [Behavioral] Health is fundamentally a spiritual/religious practice, and today there are battalions of "priests" in white coats, wearing stethoscopes and wielding medical licenses, in order to leverage Medical Insurance funds for the care of souls and PreCrime operations.
Unfortunately, while the government can send all kinds of money into their coffers, the government cannot provide the volunteers or trained staff who are necessary to actually sustain operations, keep unemployment low, and foster organizational growth. Everyone, especially health care and churches, everyone is desperate for more good workers, and tolerates incompetent or lazy ones as much as possible.
Is this a bad idea or superior to the old ways? The jury's still out. But I'm actually witnessing the flourishing and state funding of New Religious Movements who gain followers and make disciples the old-fashioned way, the way Christians have always done it. In Germany they pay Church tax and Americans are doing the same on a scale that's grander and more expansive than you may conceive.
pessimizer
> I believe it was President George HW Bush who advanced the federal policy of "faith-based charity" initiatives in order to fill gaps in entitlements and State-administered welfare programs.
I'm pretty sure that later Obama had to take it to court to defend it, because it obviously weakens the boundaries between church and state in the service of letting private entities provide services that the government is at a better scale to provide. Most people would be upset if the money were going to Scientologists, because it's not one of the right religions. Or if you sent the money to me, I'd both be able to distribute food and make myself a billionaire; it's obviously a subsidy.
> the government cannot provide the volunteers or trained staff who are necessary to actually sustain operations, keep unemployment low, and foster organizational growth.
Of course they can.
AStonesThrow
> the government is at a better scale to provide
But it's not. Never has been.
They're firing federal workers because of the deficit, national debt, Deep State issues, crumbling empire typical issues, man.
The only ‘volunteers’ the government provides are military forces! I have never once met anyone at church who says that Uncle Sam conscripted them into a ministry! Good God, can you imagine a bishop conscripting priests and colluding with the military to make them chaplains?
The State has always relied on Subsidiarity to provide charity or welfare. The federal level is a last resort, an emergency safety net when Subsidiarity and every other non-profit and religion fails to fill the gap.
The New Deal and all the social service programs here in USA and UK as well have arisen in a secular context just to ensure that churches wouldn’t get too powerful and conversely, that citizens wouldn’t feel obligated or beholden to faith-based charities who were providing many of their basic needs.
But c’mon. No state is realistically capable of doing charity at scale. Basically impossible. Therefore we re-invent church tax. Just look at the shitty situation of health care as the Secular West wrests it from Christian hegemony and literally needs to eviscerate Hippocrates.
Many places with established religions just have the government funding that religion, and it’s not a tangled web like what we’re weaving in 2025.
Disestablishmentarianism simply means “we’ll eventually need to reinvent religion in some form.”
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rdtsc
> Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future
> Ms. Bock herself had funneled money to her boyfriend at the time and used it to take trips to Las Vegas and rent Lamborghinis.
She didn't betray the mission and did feed her future. Some people just take things literally, can't blame them /s
> Another defendant, Salim Said — a 36-year-old who oversaw one of the bogus kitchens — was convicted of 20 counts, also including wire fraud and bribery.
> Mr. Said’s operation, for instance, said it had fed 6,000 a day, more than all the children in its ZIP code.
They were stealing from hungry children, this will probably not end well for them. Better stay in isolation in prison, for safety.
> But she sued the state government, saying officials were discriminating against her network because it served many African immigrants and their children.
Aha, lean into the "racism" and "discrimination", hoping the federal govt. will be intimidated. As Cpt. Kirk said "The best defense is a good offense, and I intend to start offending right now."
qingcharles
From someone who has been to jail: stealing from the government, even if you're taking money from the mouths of babes, will be seen as a respectable hustle.
rightbyte
> They were stealing from hungry children, this will probably not end well for them. Better stay in isolation in prison, for safety.
What? What is up with this conception that there is some sort of moral death squad running the pecking order among inmates in prisons.
rdtsc
> What is up with this conception that there is some sort of moral death squad running the pecking order among inmates in prisons.
I don't know. I am not saying it's right that it happens that way but it does. I imagine it's country and maybe even state based. Federal vs state prison, too. I just know from someone who worked in a corrections department overseeing the prison system in a US state.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/prison-living-hell-pedophiles/stor...
Don't know if it will necessarily apply to people who stole from children instead of feeding them.
riehwvfbk
Amazing that this is being downvoted. To everyone the "righteous" side: your thieving overlords wear this "savior" disguise as a disguise. Your putting it on won't ever make you one of them.
rdtsc
> Amazing that this is being downvoted.
Very strange, isn't. I didn't write it a "sides" thing, just a bunch of criminals who claimed they were feeding $90M worth of meals to children, and instead stole the funds. These were certainly the dumbest one. We'd think everyone would be cheering and wanting more of this to be discovered. But somehow the discussion shifted to DOGE and I guess people think this is somehow DOGE related? And if that's the case, better let criminals go just as long as it doesn't bolster any DOGE-related thing? Or something.. But this is not even DOGE related https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/federal-jury-finds-feedin... from what I can see. So who knows...
heavymetalpoizn
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heavymetalpoizn
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readthenotes1
[flagged]
gotoeleven
[flagged]
Retric
This happened at the state level not federal, and occurred outside of direct government oversight like almost all such cases.
Yet sure let’s blame the government rather than the inherent issues with outsourcing government functions to entities with less oversight.
LPisGood
This kind of corruption and fraud happens under every administration - it’s the reason for the (former?) existence of inspectors general.
doodlebugging
[flagged]
That’s a good start! 199.75 billion more to go before we recapture the full amount stolen during the pandemic. I wonder if this is on the list for DOGE to audit? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/new-federal-estimate-fi...