Omar faces mounting scrutiny after fraud ringleader sentenced to 41 years
The 41-year prison sentence handed to the ringleader of Minnesota’s massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal is renewing scrutiny of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., over her ties to convicted figures in the $250 million scheme.
Aimee Bock, the founder and former executive director of Feeding Our Future, was sentenced Thursday after prosecutors said she oversaw a network of fake meal sites that stole federal nutrition funds meant to feed low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The convicted fraudster alleged, without evidence, that Omar was likely aware of restaurant owners billing the government for falsified or inflated claims in an explosive interview with The New York Post.
“I struggle to believe that she wouldn’t have known,” Bock told the outlet, referring to Omar.
OMAR ACCUSED BY GOP OPPONENT OF OPENING UP THE DOOR TO MASSIVE MINNEAPOLIS FRAUD: ‘DEEP, DEEP TIES’
More than 60 individuals, most of whom are members of the Somali immigrant community, have been convicted in the Feeding Our Future scandal in which fraudsters pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars from a federally funded child nutrition program.
Federal prosecutors have not charged Omar or accused her of participating in the fraud.
However, Republicans have accused Omar of weakening guardrails around the program that allowed a network of fake meal sites to fraudulently bill the government and have zeroed in on her alleged ties to individuals convicted of pilfering taxpayer dollars, according to an 84-page report released by a Minnesota fraud committee earlier this month.
Omar has denied wrongdoing and told Fox News Digital this week that “any claim that I had knowledge of this scheme is flat-out false.”
“As I stated from the beginning, stealing millions of dollars under the guise of feeding hungry children to bankroll lavish lifestyles and extravagant expenses is reprehensible,” the Minnesota Democrat continued. “I’m grateful that Aimee Bock and every individual involved in this abhorrent scheme are being held accountable for defrauding taxpayers and betraying vulnerable children.”
Omar declined a request from Minnesota’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee to hand over her communications with Feeding Our Future defendants and records related to promoting the program with state officials and constituents. Democrats on the panel subsequently blocked an attempt to subpoena those communications.
SEE IT: FEEDING OUR FUTURE FRAUDSTERS BOUGHT MANSIONS AND MERCEDES WITH $250M IN STOLEN MEAL FUNDS
The Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee report pointed to several “direct ties” between Omar and individuals later convicted in the scheme.
Omar’s one-time staffer, Guhaad Hashi Said, who has been described as the “enforcer” of the Minnesota Democrat’s prior congressional campaigns, is one of the convicted defendants.
Said pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering after establishing a fraudulent food program site called Advance Youth Athletic Development to siphon off taxpayer dollars for personal use. The entity submitted claims for serving more than 1 million meals, but prosecutors allege he served just a “fraction” of those meals while receiving nearly $3 million in reimbursements.
In May 2020, Omar also spotlighted a Somali-owned restaurant as a meal distribution site where low-income children could receive meals during the pandemic, in a Somali-language video.
Salim Said, the since-defunct restaurant’s co-owner, was ultimately convicted in the Feeding Our Future scheme alongside Bock. Federal prosecutors allege the site received more than $16 million in fraudulent child nutrition funds used for self-enrichment.
“I’m very thankful for Safari for being part of those places where food is being given out,” Omar said in the promotional video, claiming the restaurant gave out 2,300 meals daily. “That’s a very important thing.”
The restaurant hosted Omar and her supporters at a 2018 election-night watch party, according to the report.
“A lot of the sites were working directly with her, being that a lot of the operators were from the same Somali community,” Bock told The Post.
“There were a lot of people that had been reaching out to her office and staff — and I presume her personally — to work through some of those gaps with the waivers,” the convicted fraudster added.
State lawmakers allege Omar helped “create the conditions that led to Feeding Our Future” by “removing the guardrails” from the federal nutrition program through her MEALS Act, which passed Congress as part of a sweeping pandemic relief package.
Her provision allowed a broad range of “off-site” locations, including restaurants, to participate in the child nutrition program and waived requirements that made it difficult to verify billing claims from meal sites, according to the report.
When waivers allowing restaurants to participate in the meal program were set to expire, Omar urged the Trump administration to extend them.
That advocacy “undoubtedly helped the fraud expand,” state lawmakers alleged.
Omar pointed out her provision was signed into law by President Donald Trump and implemented by his administration, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The MEALS Act was signed into law by President Trump and passed with bipartisan support as part of a broader legislative package,” she added. “Trump’s USDA Secretary set the regulatory framework during the rollout of the program.”
Omar also contended that after she learned about the fraud she “immediately sent a letter to the USDA secretary demanding answers and accountability.”
“She only sent a letter once the fraud was exposed,” state Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Minn., previously told Fox News Digital in response to Omar’s statement.
“Prior to that, she sent letters urging the administration to keep the waivers in place — allowing the fraud to continue. Sounds like revisionist history. I don’t buy it at all.”
The “Squad” lawmaker has also come under recent scrutiny over alleged immigration fraud and her family’s finances.
Vice President JD Vance said earlier this week that the Department of Justice is investigating Omar, though the department has yet to confirm the probe.
“You read the things about Ilhan Omar and about who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person,” Vance told reporters. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there.”
Omar fired back in an interview with Fox News Digital saying Vance is “saying stupid s—.”
“That is not something that is happening. That man is delusional,” she added.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Justice and the White House before publication.
المصدر: Fox News — Politics