Matt Sepic

Feds seek 30-year prison term for 'early mover' in Feeding Our Future scam Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year prison term for a defendant in the Feeding Our Future fraud case. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office says Abdiaziz Farah was key in a conspiracy to fleece taxpayer-...

Judge Nancy Brasel sentences "early mover" in #FeedingOurFuture meal fraud scam to 28 years in federal prison. Brasel: “I cannot think of any reason for the behavior other than pure unmitigated greed.” Previous story: www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

Four dozen guns, 5 body bags and a second police vehicle found in search of Boelter property Judges Friday unsealed a number of search warrants from the investigation into Vance Boelter. Boelter is suspected of killing former DFL Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, a...

More details of the investigation into the killings of former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark are outlined in several search warrants unsealed today. www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

Former Minnesota ISIS member granted early release after helping terrorism investigators A federal judge in Minneapolis cut the sentence short of a Twin Cities man who joined the Islamic State group a decade ago. Abdelhamid Al-Madioum left prison Tuesday after providing extensive help to ...

Abdelhamid Al-Madioum is out of federal prison after a decade-long saga that began with him joining ISIS at age 18 and continues today as he helps terrorism investigators.

www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

From House Speaker Lisa Demuth:

MPR News confirms that Vance Boelter, the suspected killer of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark - is in custody. Details to come.

Judge demands answers from immigration officials over U student’s detention A federal judge in St. Paul on Wednesday ordered immigration officials to say why they’re detaining a University of Minnesota graduate student. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Doğu...

www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

Lawsuit: U student 'feared he was being kidnapped' by ICE According to a federal lawsuit, Doğukan Günaydin, who is studying business at the University of Minnesota, was stripped of his phone and belongings, taken to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement fi...

@mprnews.org has new details about ICE's arrest of a U of Minnesota MBA student from Turkey. Doğukan Günaydin is jailed in Sherburne Co. without charge. His attorney argues in lawsuit that 2023 DWI is not a legal reason to revoke Günaydin's student visa. www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

University of Minnesota says ICE detained a graduate student U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials Thursday detained a University of Minnesota graduate student at an off-campus residence. The international graduate student was enrolled at the scho...

The international graduate student was enrolled at the school’s Twin Cities campus, according to the email sent Friday evening.

Thompson: "The Feeding Our Future case has come to symbolize the problem of fraud in our state. It has become the shame of Minnesota. Hopefully today’s verdict will help turn the page on this awful chapter in our state’s history.”

"The jury saw overwhelming evidence of what Bock knew," said lead prosecutor Joe Thompson. Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick called Bock & Said's actions "reprehensible." “They used a time of crisis as their golden opportunity to enrich themselves and their criminal partners…"

News conference expected soon from prosecution team.

Bock is crying. U.S. Marshals put on handcuffs and take Bock and Said into custody.

"The fraud scheme was based on deception," Brasel said. The court is concerned that defendants could use similar deception to flee now that they're facing "a significant sentence." Orders both Said & Bock jailed.

Judge Nancy Brasel says federal law carries presumption of pre-sentencing detention & burden is on defendants to prove they're not a flight risk or danger. "The court cannot find that the presumption has been rebutted."

Adrian Montez, Said's attorney, makes similar argument against detaining his client. "While these are clearly serious convictions, the crimes are not inherently dangerous..." The crimes were part of a situation that's no longer happening, he argues. Says Said needs time to say goodbye to his kids.

Brasel did not set sentencing dates. Presentence investigations come first. Prosecutor Joe Thompson moves for revocation of both defendants' pretrial release. Bock's defense attorney Ken Udoibok says Bock hasn't violated release conditions & isn't a flight risk.

Little visible reaction from Bock and Said, but I'm sitting directly behind them so it's impossible to see facial expressions.

Judge Nancy Brasel excuses the jury after thanking them for their commitment to upholding democracy and their careful attention to the evidence.

Salim Said convicted on all 21 charges. Bock convicted on all 7.

Charges included wire fraud and federal programs bribery. Said was convicted of five counts of money laundering in addition to the other charges.

Clean sweep for the government.

Bock convicted on all charges

After about 5 hours of deliberation, the jury has reached a verdict in the second #FeedingOurFuture trial. It'll be read shortly. Defendants Aimee Bock and Salim Said have just arrived at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.

Winding down his rebuttal, Ebert tells jurors "You have the power to end this story.”

On rebuttal, prosecutor Matt Ebert boils it down:

"The more they lied about feeding kids, the more taxpayer money they stole."

"They simply pocketed children’s lunch money for themselves and got rich doing so.”

Montez argues that Safari was able to prepare large amounts of food with little notice.

"These chefs, these cooks were used to preparing massive amounts of food for massive amounts of people”

Montez says just because there was fraud at other restaurants, it doesn't mean there was at Said's Safari.

“They’ve taken that narrative and they’ve tried to transpose that onto Safari restaurant to create a false narrative that Safari restaurant was doing the same thing.”

At the end of his closing argument, Udoibok says Aimee Bock was deceived by her staff and meal site operators. “I want you to remember that she acted in good faith.”

After brief break, Salim Said's defense attorney Adrian Montez begins his closing.

Udoibok argues that #FeedingOurFuture kept meticulous, organized records and invited regulators' scrutiny.

"If you want to commit fraud, that’s how you do it? Get the evidence ready for the government to seize it?”

Udoibok says the cooperating defendants who testified "admitted that they never paid [kickbacks to] Aimee Bock."

Jacobs objects, "misstates evidence." Faribault restaurant owner Lul Ali testifed FOF employee FaceTimed Bock each time he came to collect $30k kickback.

Udoibok is displaying partial transcripts of Bock's trial testimony.

“This whole case is about meal counts," Udoibok tells the jury. "You cannot hold Ms. Bock responsible for someone else’s actions.”

Defense claims Bock had no clue about fraud because she didn't see the fake meal count forms and meal site attendance sheets.