An Apple Valley woman is the 72nd person federally charged for her role in the $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson announced on Friday.
Dorothy Jean Moore, 57, of Apple Valley, was charged in a federal indictment with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering, Thompson said in a news release.
According to the release, Moore launched two purported federal child nutrition program sites in late 2020 under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. Moore completed and signed meal count forms, claiming to have served 1,500 meals to children each day at each of her sites, which she said she operated out of community churches.
Moore claimed and received reimbursements for those meals through the Feeding Our Future program, the release said. In addition, she said she operated a catering company called Jean’s Soul Food and claimed additional federal reimbursements for food from that company used at the other sites.
The release cited her bank records, saying they show she used “little of the reimbursement dollars she received to purchase food. Instead, Moore used those funds for other purposes, including to purchase cars and fund an enhanced lifestyle.”
She is the 72nd Minnesotan charged with defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s child nutrition programs during the pandemic, when regulations temporarily were loosened and a variety of businesses and nonprofits were allowed to help feed hungry kids while schools were closed. Federal prosecutors have called the scheme the nation’s largest coronavirus pandemic fraud, amounting to more than $250 million.
“This fraud is outrageous, brazen, and seemingly never-ending,” said Thompson in the release. “Stealing from a program designed to feed vulnerable children is not only criminal — it’s unconscionable,” said Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of FBI Minneapolis.
Moore made her initial appearance in U.S. District Court Friday.
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