Minnesota Department of Education sued by nonprofit named in fraud investigation
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A Minnesota nonprofit is named in an affidavit in an FBI search warrant related to fraud charges, suing the state for cutting off federal funds.
St. Paul-based Partners in Quality Care filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday, accusing the Minnesota Department of Education of violating its constitutional right to due process. Although he has not been accused or charged with fraud, he says he disregarded federal regulations governing child nutrition programs.
The Department of Education acts as an intermediary by distributing federal funds to local agencies such as Partners in Quality Care, which then distributes further to several smaller groups that are supposed to feed the children.
The agency stopped funding Partners in Quality Care in January after FBI documents revealed that tens of millions of dollars may have been misused for personal expenses instead. did. No person or agency named in the FBI documents has been charged with financial fraud in connection with the ongoing investigation.
The lawsuit accuses the Department of Education of taking “revenge” against Partners in Quality Care. The ministry also said it treated nonprofits as “scapegoats” to compensate for “mismanagement” of federal funds.
“MDE [Minnesota Department of Education] PIQC recklessly [Partners in Quality Care] In fact, it participates in as-yet-unproven crimes that federal officials are apparently still investigating,” the lawsuit states. “
The lawsuit seeks a judge to compel the Department of Education to resume federal payments to Partners in Quality Care.
Department of Education spokesman Kevin Burns declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing its policy not to comment on pending lawsuits.
“MDE [Minnesota Department of Education] We remain committed to ensuring that young people have access to healthy, nutritious meals,” Barnes said.
Lawyers for Partners in Quality Care declined to comment on Friday afternoon’s lawsuit, and staff at the nonprofit did not respond to Sahan Journal’s request for comment.
The FBI claims that during the first two years of the COVID pandemic, an extensive network of Minnesota nonprofit food sites and shell companies duped the federal government through child nutrition programs. As part of this investigation, the FBI said he raided at least 15 locations in January, and in the same month he opened three search warrant affidavits.
The search warrant names more than 20 people, non-profit organizations, food sites, and alleged shell companies as part of the alleged scheme. A key player in the search warrant is Feeding Our Future, an organization similar to Quality Care’s Partners. The search warrant accused her Aimee Bock, executive her director of Feeding Our Future, of fraud. She has not been charged with Bock, a claim she vehemently denies.
The search warrant also names Quality Care Partners, which also does business as a nutrition partner. However, the documents never directly accused the nonprofit of engaging in fraud. However, the FBI claimed that three of his vendors, working with Partners in Quality Care, committed fraud.
Shortly after the release of the three search warrants, the Department of Education terminated its contract with Partners in Quality Care. The search warrant prompted the department to terminate its contract with Feeding Our Future and stop funding the organization.
Partners in Quality Care appealed this decision, and the school board last spring ruled that the Department of Education acted too quickly in cutting off federal funding from nonprofits, ruling them out of action. supported. Following the commission’s decision, Partners in Quality Care applied several times for funding from the child nutrition program, but was denied by the Department of Education.
In May, the Department of Education sent a letter to Partners in Quality Care banning nonprofits from participating in child nutrition programs, according to the complaint. The ministry cited allegations of fraud in the search warrant and the arrest last spring of two men who previously worked as vendors for Partners in Quality Care.
A man is accused of mishandling money for a child nutrition program that was meant to be used to feed his children. was indicted on
Partners in Quality Care criticizes the department’s reasoning as “associative guilt.”
Quality Care litigation partners said the agency’s actions prompted nonprofits to cut food aid from more than 300 endangered after-school programs, 15 childcare centers, and 10 adult care centers. I claim. Partners in Quality Care blames the department for cutting staff from her 14 to her eight.
The lawsuit follows a similar lawsuit filed by Feeding Our Future in 2020 against the Department of Education.
Feeding Our Future filed a lawsuit in state court, accusing the department of wrongfully denying applications for child nutrition programs. Feeding Our Future accused the department of discriminating because the vendors Feeding Our Future worked with were run by immigrants and people of color. Feeding Our Future dropped the lawsuit shortly after the FBI raid went public. The nonprofit was later dissolved as an organization. Partners in Quality Care Executive Her Director, Kara Lomen, once ran Partners in Quality Care with Bock. Lomen and Bock fell out along the way, with Bock leaving her Partners in Quality Care and in 2018 she ran Feeding Our Future.
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