联邦没收与明州食品欺诈案关联公司的四处房产
联邦检方10月21日在明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯联邦法院提起没收诉讼，要求没收与非营利组织 Partners in Nutrition 关联公司的四处房产，涉及金额约100万美元。检方指控 Partners in Nutrition 在2019至2022年间，谎称其管理运营多达72个食品发放点、向低收入儿童发放了数百万份餐食，联邦政府为此实际多付了约1,000万美元。该组织上个月刚在州政府的民事欺诈和解中同意解散。
上周，联邦陪审团已判定该组织最高层人物 Salim Said 和 Aimee Bock 在与 Feeding Our Future 关联的另一起食品欺诈案中犯有电汇欺诈罪，这是明尼苏达州规模最大的疫情纾困欺诈案之一。
Partners in Nutrition 的律师表示，当事人“强烈否认”检方指控，并称这些房产是作为学校厨房和办公场所合法购置的。律师称当事人尚未收到没收通知。此案凸显疫情期间联邦食品援助计划监管存在的巨大漏洞。（GSM 据 Fox9 报道）
Feds Seek Forfeiture of Four Properties Tied to Company in Minnesota Food Fraud Cases
Federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint on October 21 in federal court in Minneapolis, Minnesota, seeking four properties tied to a company affiliated with the nonprofit Partners in Nutrition, involving roughly $1 million. Prosecutors allege that from 2019 to 2022 the organization falsely claimed to operate as many as 72 food distribution sites serving millions of meals to low-income children, and that the federal government overpaid by about $10 million as a result. The organization agreed just last month to dissolve as part of a civil fraud settlement with the state.
Last week a federal jury convicted the organization's top figures, Salim Said and Aimee Bock, of wire fraud in a separate food fraud case tied to Feeding Our Future — one of Minnesota's largest pandemic-relief fraud schemes.
An attorney for Partners in Nutrition said the clients 'strongly deny' the allegations and that the properties were lawfully purchased as school kitchens and office space, adding that they had not yet been served with the forfeiture notice. The case underscores major oversight gaps in federal food aid programs during the pandemic. (GSM, from Fox9 reporting)
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：图：亨内平县政府中心，明尼阿波利斯。作者 AlexiusHoratius，CC BY-SA 3.0，来源 Wikimedia Commons。Photo: Hennepin County Government Center, Minneapolis. By AlexiusHoratius, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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