The convicted ringleader of the Feeding Our Future fraud is blaming her Somali co-conspirators for orchestrating the sprawling billing scheme that stole more than $250 million from a federal food assistance program, insisting ahead of this week’s sentencing hearing that she, too, was duped by the Minnesota-based network of Somali fraudsters.

Aimee Bock faces a statutory maximum sentence of 100 years in federal prison in what would be the lengthiest and most severe punishment yet in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, a penalty to be determined at Thursday’s sentencing hearing.