The $240M Heist: How Aminah “Amy” Bocti Masterminded Minnesota’s Great Somali Welfare Fraud
The $240M Heist: How Aminah “Amy” Bocti Masterminded Minnesota’s Great Somali Welfare Fraud
In the annals of American financial crime, few schemes are as audacious or as heartbreaking as the “Feeding our Future” fraud. At the center of this $240 million hurricane of theft wasn’t some shadowy cartel boss, but a woman named Aminah “Amy” Daud Bocti. She became the unlikely mastermind of one of the largest fraud cases in Minnesota history, a scheme that didn’t just steal money—it stole from the mouths of children and betrayed the trust of an entire community. This isn’t just a story about numbers; it’s a story about how a system designed to help the vulnerable was twisted into a personal ATM by a few who knew exactly which levers to pull.
Who is Aminah “Amy” Daud Bocti, the Fraud Ring Leader?
Aminah Daud Bocti, often going by “Amy,” wasn’t a household name until the walls came crashing in. To many, she was just another member of the vibrant Somali-American community in Minnesota. To federal prosecutors, she was the “guru” of fraud, a central figure who possessed the dark knowledge to exploit state and federal systems for staggering profit. She wasn’t the one signing every fraudulent check, but she was the architect, the teacher, the recruiter who showed others how to build the very machine that would siphon millions. Her role was that of an instigator, a person of trust who used her standing to persuade others to open fraudulent daycare centers in their names, effectively making them pawns in a much larger game.
Bocti’s power came from her perceived expertise. In a community navigating complex systems in a new country, someone who claimed to know the secrets could easily gain influence. She provided the blueprint, the know-how, and the confidence for others to commit fraud on a scale they likely couldn’t have imagined. She was the mastermind who saw the vulnerabilities in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and the Federal Food Assistance Program not as bugs, but as features to be exploited. Her position allowed her to orchestrate a criminal enterprise that was both sophisticated and deeply personal, preying on the very systems meant to support families like her own.
Ultimately, her identity shifted from community member to convicted felon. The evidence presented in court painted a clear picture of a woman who was not a passive participant but an active leader. She was the one who taught the “class” on how to defraud the government, profiting handsomely from the tuition. Her story is a stark reminder that the most damaging criminals are often the ones you’d least suspect, the ones who operate from within, using trust as their primary weapon.
Deconstructing the “Feeding Our Future” Fraud Machine
The mechanics of the fraud were shockingly simple in concept yet brilliantly executed in practice. The entire operation hinged on one central lie: that thousands of children were being cared for in legitimate daycare centers across Minnesota. The reality was that many of these centers were ghosts. They existed only on paper, at fake addresses, or were shell operations with no children, no staff, and no purpose other than to generate fraudulent invoices. The scheme was a masterclass in bureaucratic exploitation, a digital grift played out on a massive scale.
The first step was creating the fraudulent centers. Bocti and her co-conspirators would submit applications to the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), the gatekeeper for childcare funds. They used the names and information of real people, often without their full knowledge, to act as the “owners” of these phantom businesses. Once an application was approved—often with minimal oversight—the money faucet was turned on. The next step was to populate these ghost centers with “phantom children.” They would use the names and ID numbers of real children from the community, again, often without the parents’ consent, and enroll them en masse.
With the fake centers and fake children in place, the billing began. Tens of thousands of false claims were submitted to the state for reimbursement. The government was billed for hours of care that never happened and for meals that were never served. The money flowed into accounts controlled by the fraud ring, where it was quickly laundered through a complex web of transfers to personal accounts, purchases of luxury goods, real estate, and other investments. The “Feeding our Future” non-profit, which was supposed to be a sponsor helping legitimate daycare centers navigate the system, became the epicenter of the criminal enterprise, its name a cruel irony.
The Art of the Steal: Billing for Phantom Children
The core engine of the fraud was the billing process for non-existent children. This is where the scheme’s sheer scale became apparent. The conspirators weren’t just fudging a few numbers; they were invent entire rosters of kids. For each phantom child enrolled, they could claim reimbursement for childcare services and, separately, for federal food assistance. This dual-stream of revenue meant each fake name on a list was worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per month to the criminal enterprise.
Prosecutors laid out how the conspirators would systematically submit claims for the maximum allowable hours of care per child, every single month. They used sophisticated methods to avoid immediate detection, such as spreading the enrollments across multiple shell centers to avoid raising red flags with any single provider. The parents whose children’s identities were stolen were often completely unaware, their information used as a tool in a crime they never consented to. This dehumanization of the data—reducing children to line items on an invoice—was a key part of what made the scheme so morally repugnant.
The success of this billing blitz was a testament to the failures of oversight within the state agencies. For years, the system paid out claims with minimal verification, creating an environment ripe for exploitation. The fraudsters knew this. They counted on bureaucratic inertia and the sheer volume of transactions to hide their criminal activity in plain sight. It was a low-risk, high-reward crime, until it wasn’t. The eventual unraveling was triggered by whistleblowers and journalists who noticed the impossible math centers that were billing for more children than physically existed in their facilities.
The Inevitable Downfall: Justice for the “Feeding Our Future” Scandal
Like all house of cards, this one was destined to collapse. The sheer volume of money—eventually totaling over $240 million—became too big to ignore. Investigations by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force kicked into high gear. What they uncovered was a sprawling conspiracy that implicated over 70 people. The “Feeding our Future” scandal was no longer a secret; it was a national headline, a black eye for Minnesota, and a devastating betrayal for the Somali-American community.
The legal consequences were severe and swift. Dozens of defendants pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial. Aminah “Amy” Bocti, the mastermind, faced the music. In July 2023, a federal judge handed down her sentence: **7.5 years (90 months) in federal prison**. On top of the prison time, she was ordered to pay restitution to the tune of millions of dollars, a symbolic gesture given that most of the stolen money is likely gone forever, laundered beyond recovery. Her sentence was a clear message that architects of such large-scale fraud will be held accountable, regardless of their role in the community.
The fallout extended far beyond the prison sentences handed down. The scandal shattered public trust in the social safety net and fueled a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that unfairly tarred an entire community for the actions of a few. It also prompted a massive overhaul of the Minnesota DHS’s systems for vetting and monitoring childcare providers. The “Feeding our Future” case serves as a permanent, painful lesson in the vulnerabilities of well-intentioned government programs and the devastating human cost of unchecked greed. The justice delivered, while significant, can never fully repair the damage done to the community’s reputation and the children who were the intended victims of this theft.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Welfare Fraud Case
Q: Who was the main person behind the Minnesota welfare fraud scheme?
A: The central figure and mastermind was Aminah “Amy” Daud Bocti. Prosecutors described her as a “guru” who recruited others and provided the blueprint for defrauding the Child Care Assistance Program.
Q: How much money was stolen in the “Feeding our Future” fraud case?
A: The total amount stolen from federal and state programs is estimated to be over $240 million, making it one of the largest fraud cases in Minnesota’s history.
Q: What was Aminah Bocti’s sentence for her role in the fraud?
A: Aminah Bocti was sentenced to 90 months (7.5 years) in federal prison and was ordered to pay millions in restitution for her role as a key organizer in the conspiracy.
Q: How did the fraud scheme actually work?
A: The conspirators created a network of fake childcare centers. They then enrolled thousands of “phantom children” (using real children’s ID numbers without consent) and billed the government for care and food services that were never provided.
Q: What happened to the money that was stolen?
A: The stolen funds were laundered through a complex network of bank accounts and used to purchase luxury goods, real estate, cars, and other personal items. The vast majority of the money has not been recovered.