A St. Paul nonprofit with ties to the child food program scandal has dropped its lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Education.
Partners In Nutrition, which sponsored organizations that hand out free food to kids, had its participation in the federal food programs terminated in May after criminal charging documents were unsealed that pointed to the nonprofit’s role in an alleged scheme to defraud the government with false reimbursement claims.
Although no one at Partners In Nutrition has been charged criminally, some of those the nonprofit sponsored are among the more than 50 people under federal prosecution for a fraud prosecutors have said exceeds $250 million.
With the lawsuit, Partners was trying to get reinstated as a program sponsor. But a federal judge last month refused to grant a temporary restraining order, saying the nonprofit ultimately was unlikely to win its case.
“If Partners is indeed connected to the fraud, as the unsealed (FBI) affidavits allege, MDE continuing to funnel money to an entity that knowingly or blindly served as a passthrough for the fraud is not in the public interest,” U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim wrote.
The education department’s own appeal panel also upheld the department’s May decision to terminate Partners.
Partners has said it did not knowingly participate in any fraud.
Partners claimed $179 million in meal reimbursements last year alone. Its founder, Aimee Bock, later started the competing Feeding Our Future, which claimed $198 million in reimbursements last year.
Federal prosecutors say Bock was at the center of a fraud scheme involving false meal claims and kickbacks. She has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit fraud and bribery.
The notice of dismissal filed Wednesday leaves the door open for Partners to refile the lawsuit.
Lawyers for the nonprofit did not respond to a request for comment.