{"id":116853,"date":"2026-05-17T15:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116853"},"modified":"2026-05-17T15:40:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:40:56","slug":"116853","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116853","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018An open secret\u2019: New records reveal officials failed to act on fraud warnings<\/a><\/p>\n

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Newly obtained FBI interviews show regulators raised concerns about Feeding Our Future long before the meals program lost millions to fraud.<\/div>\n
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By Jeffrey Meitrodt The Minnesota Star Tribune<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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State education officials repeatedly raised concerns about possible fraud in the federally funded meals program during the pandemic, but their supervisors stopped them from taking more aggressive action, according to law enforcement interviews and other investigative records newly obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.<\/div>\n
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Frontline regulators said that they questioned soaring reimbursement claims and suspicious food distribution operations to their supervisors long before prosecutors uncovered what became one of the nation\u2019s largest pandemic fraud schemes.<\/div>\n
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Three state employees told investigators that their managers discouraged aggressive oversight because they were afraid of lawsuits. One believed the department\u2019s leadership feared accusations of racism from Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit at the center of the fraud case, which largely served Minnesota\u2019s East African community.<\/div>\n
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The interviews provide a rare inside account of the state\u2019s botched response to early warning signs of fraud \u2014 and how legal concerns and delayed enforcement allowed the scheme to grow, ultimately siphoning more than $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program overseen by the state education department.<\/div>\n
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The records include FBI interviews with Jenny Butcher, a 25-year veteran of the Minnesota Department of Education who retired in 2024. Butcher told federal investigators in May 2022 that abuse in the meals program was an \u201copen secret.\u201d<\/div>\n
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She said that her supervisors repeatedly stopped her from digging into suspicious reimbursement claims and discouraged her from visiting sites that seemed \u201cunbelievable\u201d to her.<\/div>\n
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\u201cNo one at our agency was allowed to go to the sites \u2014 not even a drive-by,\u201d Butcher said in an interview with the Star Tribune.<\/div>\n
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At least two other state officials echoed Butcher\u2019s characterization of the education department\u2019s timid regulatory approach, according to the records. One of Butcher\u2019s colleagues told the FBI that Butcher was the first regulator to raise internal concerns about fraud in the meals program.<\/div>\n
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Federal documents obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The documents were edited to obscure identifying details.<\/div>\n
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Under the program, nonprofits were reimbursed for meals served at sites across Minnesota. Prosecutors found that site operators were vastly inflating the number of meals served and pocketing the profits. So far, 65 of the 79 individuals charged with defrauding the federal government have been convicted, including Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock. Some of the fraudsters worked with a competing nonprofit called Partners in Nutrition, but nobody within that organization has been criminally charged.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The scandal was the first of several pandemic-era fraud cases that triggered state and federal investigations, drew rebukes from the Trump administration and became a major political liability for Gov. Tim Walz, who ended his campaign for reelection.<\/div>\n
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In her interviews with federal agents, Butcher did not identify the supervisors who allegedly prevented her from investigating. She declined to name them to the Star Tribune.<\/div>\n
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The commissioner of the education department at the time was Heather Mueller, a Walz appointee who stepped down shortly after the fraud allegations were made public. Mueller did not respond to a request for comment.<\/div>\n
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In response to the newly released records, Walz\u2019s spokesman Teddy Tschann said in a statement that the governor \u201chas made sweeping changes across state government since these interviews took place years ago, including policy and personnel changes within the Minnesota Department of Education.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Department officials have said that they did everything within their power to crack down on suspicious activity. Emily Buss, the department spokesperson, declined to make officials available for an interview with the Star Tribune.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In a written response to questions, she disputed that the department limited regulators\u2019 oversight. She blamed \u201clegal constraints\u201d for limiting enforcement, noting that the Minnesota Court of Appeals blocked the department from barring a different nonprofit from operating in 2017.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cBock and her associates in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme used allegations of racism as a tactic throughout their criminal enterprise,\u201d Buss said in the statement. She added it was litigation and court decisions that limited the department\u2019s ability to prevent the fraud \u201cnot fear of being called racist.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Katherine Theisen, special reviews director with the state Office of the Legislative Auditor, said the department could have tried shutting down Feeding Our Future as early as 2018, when regulators uncovered 22 violations, including inflated attendance figures and other markers for fraud.<\/div>\n
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That same year, according to her 2024 report, state officials received the first credible allegations of criminal activity involving Feeding Our Future.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The auditor concluded the department had the authority to terminate sponsors and conduct additional verification even during the pandemic.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThey could have taken different action. They chose not to,\u201d Theisen said. \u201cIt was a systemic failure.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2018At every turn, she was told to stop\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents interviewed hundreds of people as part of the sweeping investigation into fraud in Minnesota. The courts ordered the parties to hold the investigative records in \u201cstrict confidentiality,\u201d making the documents accessible only to defendants, their lawyers and law enforcement.<\/div>\n
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A federal judge recently rebuked Bock for allegedly conspiring with her adult son to provide copies of FBI interviews and other records to the Star Tribune and other media outlets. The Minnesota Star Tribune obtained the records through multiple people, who requested anonymity.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In some cases, the newly obtained records suggest it would have been relatively easy for state regulators to prove at least some of the fraud sites were bogus.<\/div>\n
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Butcher said she wanted to visit several sites that were located at public parks and apartment complexes. Employees at the facilities later told the FBI they never saw food being handed out.<\/div>\n
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In her interview with FBI agent Jared Kary, who testified extensively at Bock\u2019s trial, Butcher said her efforts to dig deeper were thwarted throughout 2020 and 2021. If she defied her bosses and investigated, Butcher told Kary that she got her \u201chand slapped.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cAt every turn, she was told to stop,\u201d Kary reported. \u201cButcher was told by management at MDE to stop digging into things because it will appear as if she was targeting certain groups.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Butcher also said she was \u201cwarned not to do anything that would be considered targeting or discriminating against certain diverse communities.\u201d Butcher, who is married to a Black immigrant from Barbados, said such insinuations were \u201coffensive\u201d to her.<\/div>\n
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Another education official, Camille Jones, told investigators that her supervisors showed little interest in pursuing her concerns about potential kickbacks and \u201ctotally crazy\u201d reimbursement claims by Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition just a few months into the scheme in 2020. Jones did not return calls and emails seeking comment.<\/div>\n
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A third official, Jeanette Johnson-Reed, told federal agents that she tried to establish a rule that would have limited sites from switching sponsors more than once a year. Court records show some fraudsters used such tactics to overwhelm regulators with paperwork and make it harder for them to spot fraud.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In her 2025 interview with the IRS, Johnson-Reed said she was \u201cforced to take back the rule\u201d after Bock complained to Mueller\u2019s office.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Johnson-Reed did not return calls and emails seeking comment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Federal documents obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The documents were edited to obscure identifying details.<\/div>\n
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In her statement, Buss said department employees were told to follow \u201cestablished procedures,\u201d believing that tactic was \u201cessential to defending agency actions against repeated legal challenge\u201d from Feeding our Future.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Buss also noted the state enacted a law limiting so-called sponsor shopping in 2023.<\/div>\n
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The records show that other officials, including Assistant Commissioner Daron Korte, told federal investigators that by the fall of 2020 it was clear there weren\u2019t enough children to justify the giant reimbursement claims coming in.<\/div>\n
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Korte did not return calls or emails from the Star Tribune.<\/div>\n
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Korte told investigators that the department was reluctant to accuse anybody in the meals program of fraud without proof, noting such disputes were likely to wind up in the courts. The department was especially wary of Feeding Our Future, Korte told investigators, saying the nonprofit and its attorney often called department employees \u201cracist\u201d when they tried to hold it accountable.<\/div>\n
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\u201cKorte felt like it was part of his job to protect the MDE commissioner in dealing with the accusations,\u201d Kary said in his FBI report on the 2025 interview.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Federal documents obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The documents were edited to obscure identifying details.<\/div>\n
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Bock used the legal system to counter efforts by regulators to rein in her now-defunct nonprofit. At one point, she filed a restraining order against department officials. In November 2020, Feeding Our Future sued the department after it refused to approve dozens of meal sites.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The state settled the case.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2018Ill-prepared\u2019 to deal with fraud<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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In 2022, when state lawmakers held hearings on the education department\u2019s oversight of Feeding our Future, top department officials claimed they had no evidence of fraud until the FBI unsealed search warrants earlier that year.<\/div>\n
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Mueller and other department officials initially blamed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds and oversees the meals program alongside the Minnesota Department of Education, for failing to provide guidance on how to deal with its concerns about Feeding Our Future.<\/div>\n
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The federal agency has repeatedly refused to comment on the scandal.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The department also blamed state court judges for taking Feeding Our Future\u2019s side in a long-running legal battle, with officials claiming they were essentially forced to approve dozens of questionable sites and resume payments to the nonprofit when the department failed to justify the actions.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In January 2021, the education department took its strongest step when it threatened to terminate the nonprofit\u2019s participation in the meals program because of \u201cserious deficiencies.\u201d<\/div>\n
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But each time the department threatened Feeding Our Future, the legislative auditor noted in its report, education officials later backed off, allowing the nonprofit to remain in the program despite ongoing concerns about fraud and mismanagement.<\/div>\n
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Theisen said the department had all the authority it needed to take decisive action against the nonprofit.<\/div>\n
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The problem, Theisen said, was that the department waited until 2022 to appoint a general counsel, which she said deprived the department of the legal expertise it needed to fully understand \u2014 and wield \u2014 its regulatory powers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe department was ill-prepared to deal with these issues,\u201d Theisen said.<\/div>\n
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Claims paid to Feeding Our Future grew exponentially<\/h3>\n
The Minnesota Department of Education had many chances to take stronger action against Feeding Our Future, but opted to keep paying the nonprofit despite serious concerns about criminal wrongdoing. In 2020, for instance, MDE supervisor Jenny Butcher began asking FOF for receipts to support the nonprofit\u2019s \u201cunbelievable” claims. Her bosses told her to “stop asking” for the documents, FBI records show.<\/div>\n

ANNUAL CLAIMS PAID TO FOF BY MDE<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Claims paid<\/div>\n
Number of sites<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

201820210050M50M100M100M150M150M$200M$200M<\/p>\n

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$307.3K<\/div>\n
$307.3K<\/div>\n
$3.5M<\/div>\n
$3.5M<\/div>\n
$42.8M<\/div>\n
$42.8M<\/div>\n
$199.5M<\/div>\n
$199.5M<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

008080160160240240320320<\/p>\n

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26<\/div>\n
26<\/div>\n
86<\/div>\n
86<\/div>\n
174<\/div>\n
174<\/div>\n
299<\/div>\n
299<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source:<\/span>\u00a0Federal court records, Minnesota Office of Legislative Auditor\u2022Mark Boswell, The Minnesota Star Tribune<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In a recent interview from Sherburne County jail where she has been detained since her conviction last year, Bock claimed she was the one raising concerns about fraud among other nonprofits and operators in her organization \u2013 and being ignored by state officials.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Bock said she terminated dozens of site operators for suspected fraud and her records gave prosecutors a trail of evidence when they raided her home.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI handed it to them on a silver platter,\u201d said Bock, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday. \u201cOur government needs to be held accountable, and they have not.\u201d<\/div>\n
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At a legislative hearing in April, a top education official said the department has dramatically overhauled its regulatory approach, in part by creating its own inspector general to investigate fraud allegations.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Since late 2023, the department has received 412 complaints resulting in 66 full investigations and 20 sanctions against providers accused of fraud in various programs. Those investigations allowed the state to withhold payments of $1.1 million, Deputy Commissioner Maren Hulden told legislators.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cMuch has changed at MDE in the past five to six years,\u201d Hulden said at the hearing.<\/div>\n
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State lawmakers passed legislation this month that will create the state\u2019s first independent office of inspector general, which will investigate and root out fraud in state programs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018An open secret\u2019: New records reveal officials failed to act on fraud warnings Newly obtained FBI interviews show regulators raised concerns about Feeding Our Future long before the meals program lost millions to fraud. By Jeffrey Meitrodt The Minnesota Star Tribune State education officials repeatedly raised concerns about possible fraud in the federally funded meals … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116855,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116853\/revisions\/116855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}