The convicted architect of Minnesota’s staggering $250 million pandemic welfare fraud is now pleading for sympathy from behind bars, telling a jailhouse interviewer she has “lost everything” as she stares down a possible 33-year prison sentence.

Aimee Bock, the former head of the now-infamous nonprofit Feeding Our Future, was convicted last year on multiple counts of wire fraud and bribery after prosecutors proved she oversaw a massive scheme that siphoned federal funds meant to feed hungry children during COVID-19. Instead, millions were spent on luxury cars, high-end handbags, and properties scattered across the globe.

Speaking to CBS News in her first interview since her conviction, Bock described the verdict as “heartbreaking,” insisting she was not the mastermind prosecutors portrayed her to be. From her jail cell, she blamed state officials for approving meal sites that later turned out to be fraudulent. “We relied on the state,” Bock said. “They told us it was approved.”

Bock also pointed fingers at elected officials who visited the sites, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose office she said was familiar with Feeding Our Future’s operations. Omar has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing and has never been accused of involvement in the scheme.

The fraud network exploded after pandemic-era rules loosened oversight of school meal programs, allowing claims to balloon from $3.4 million in 2019 to nearly $200 million just two years later. Prosecutors said Bock used intimidation, frivolous lawsuits, and delay tactics to keep state officials from digging too deeply, comparing her own organization to the mob in text messages later introduced at trial.

Despite overwhelming evidence, Bock rejected responsibility, telling CBS that if she were truly guilty, she would have pled out. “If I had done this, I would’ve pled guilty,” she said. “I wouldn’t have gone to trial.”

Her remorse rang hollow in court. A federal judge recently ordered Bock to forfeit more than $5 million, even as investigators estimate only about $75 million of the stolen funds have been recovered. Bock minimized the spoils, claiming an FBI raid turned up little more than “two pairs of earrings, a bracelet, a watch, and some cash.”

The case has ignited fierce political fallout. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accused the Trump administration of politicizing the investigation, while officials in Donald Trump’s administration pointed to the case as proof of systemic abuse in pandemic aid programs.

Of the 78 defendants charged in connection with Feeding Our Future, nearly all are of Somali or East African descent—except Bock herself. Her attorney argued at trial that state officials turned a blind eye because the meal sites served a politically important constituency, a claim prosecutors flatly rejected.

Now, as she awaits sentencing, Bock says she wishes she could “go back and stop things,” even as she continues to deny being the person who ran the show. The money is gone, the verdict is in, and the children the funds were meant to feed were never the ones who got rich.