MO Exec Nabbed: $20M Food Fraud

⏱ 4 min read

St. Louis – Connie Bobo, 46, got 16 years Monday for a cold-blooded scheme that ripped off a Missouri program feeding hungry kids. The former head of New Heights Community Resource Center funneled nearly $20 million into her own pockets starting in 2018, leaving children with empty plates while she lived large.

Prosecutors laid out a systematic fraud where Bobo fabricated everything – board members, trainings, even the organization’s basic rules – to qualify for state meal program money. For three years, she filed bogus claims, systematically siphoning off millions. The evidence wasn’t about accounting errors; it was about blatant self-enrichment.

The FBI didn’t just find paper trails. They seized a $1 million home, a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, and four other properties bought with the stolen cash. Bobo used $200,000 to buy a G550 for a boyfriend, built herself a new house, and sank $2.2 million into commercial real estate. U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus called it the biggest public assistance fraud in Missouri history, noting that “Hungry children were turned away” when Bobo’s events ran dry.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman argued Bobo intended to defraud the system from the start. Judge Audrey Fleissig ordered full restitution of the $19.7 million, but recovering that money will be a long shot. FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker summed it up bluntly: Bobo’s greed was “reprehensible.”