Testimony continued yesterday in the Feeding Our Future fraud case against defendants Aimee Bock and Salim Said. Bock was the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future. Said is a former owner of Safari Restaurant, whose sites allegedly served millions of allegedly fictitious meals that Feeding Our Future processed for payment by the Minnesota Department of Education.
The second day of trial featured the testimony of Benjamin Stayberg. Stayberg was the third witness called by the prosecution. Thanks to a call from New York Times reporter David Farenthold for his 2022 story, Stayberg awoke one day to discover that he had been listed as the president of the board of Feeding Our Future from 2018-2020. If the trial in federal court here were televised, Stayberg would be basking in at least 15 minutes of fame and a hit or two on Fox News and other cable news outlets.
Stayberg graduated from Hudson High in Hudson, Wisconsin. Since his graduation in 2000, he has mostly held bartender jobs with a variety of St. Paul bars and restaurants in the vicinity of West 7th Street: Champps, Tavern on the Avenue, Bennett’s Chop and Rail House, Bay Street Grill, and Fabulous Fern’s. While bartending, Stayberg served Bock and her boyfriend over a period of eight years. As I understood his testimony, at one point Bock presented him with what he thought was “a petition” and obtained his signature on it.
Stayberg has a rough-hewn look, blue collar charisma, and naturally self-deprecating wit. The vibe reminded me of My Cousin Vinny. When Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson displayed a Feeding Our Future organization chart with Stayberg at the top, he commented laconically: “Yeah, big shoes.”
Thompson also displayed Feeding Our Future training quizzes on Household Income Statements, Claims for Reimbursement, Meal Counts, and other such Feeding Our Future corporate matters. All of these documents reflected Stayberg’s participation and signature. Someone signed his name on the documents, he testified, but it wasn’t him.
“Do you know anything about approving sites or even what the [Child and Adult Care Food Program] is?” Thompson asked.
“No clue,” Stayberg replied.
The Feeding Our Future documents list another bartender, John Senkler, as the board secretary. Senkler is a friend of Stayberg. Thompson asked Stayberg, “Do you doubt John Senkler served on a board of directors?”
Stayberg asked, “Have you met him?” He hesitated to speak ill of Senkler “behind his back,” but he observed: “He’s the last person you’d think would be in that position….him and I like to party…bar hop.”
Stayberg’s self-deprecation kicked in: “The last thing either of us would [want to] do would be in a room like this explaining ourselves.”
Thompson reviewed Feeding Our Future board minutes from 2018-2020 with Stayberg’s purported signature. The minutes to the contrary notwithstanding, Stayberg did not attend the board meetings. He did not sign the minutes. He never made a motion. Despite the minutes’ attestations, he did not vouch for their accuracy. He was never a member of the board. He didn’t get his job from the New York Times, as the old Times classified advertising campaign put it. He only heard about it from the Times.
Rob Olson featured Stayberg’s testimony in his report on the trial yesterday for the local Fox affiliate.
CREDIT: I have borrowed a few of the quotes from Stayberg’s testimony from Jenna Gloeb’s Alpha News story. Jenna also documented yesterday’s testimony on her X feed here.
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