How many Feeding Our Future defendants have pleaded guilty versus been convicted at trial?
Executive summary
As of mid‑March 2025, public records and federal announcements show 44 Feeding Our Future defendants have been adjudicated either by guilty plea or by jury conviction, with 37 defendants having entered guilty pleas and seven being convicted at trial; that tally combines a five‑defendant jury verdict from October 2024 and two jury convictions announced in March 2025 [1] [2] [3].
1. The simple arithmetic: how many pleaded guilty and how many were convicted by juries
Federal and local reporting collated through March 19, 2025, places the count at 44 defendants who have been “convicted at trial or who pleaded guilty,” and separate public accounts document that five defendants were found guilty in the first trial in October 2024 and two more were convicted by jury in March 2025—yielding seven jury convictions—and therefore 37 guilty pleas (44 total convictions minus 7 jury convictions = 37 guilty pleas) [1] [2] [3].
2. What the key sources say and why they line up that way
Sahan Journal tallied that the convictions by guilty plea or trial reached 44 as of its March 19, 2025 reporting, a running total meant to capture the cumulative outcomes in the sprawling federal investigation [1]. Local reporting from October 2024 recorded the first substantive jury trial result—five convicted, two acquitted—which is the piece that supplies the initial “convicted at trial” number [2]. The Department of Justice’s March 19, 2025 press release confirms the March convictions of Aimee Bock and Salim Said, adding two more jury convictions to the public count [3]. Subtracting the seven jury convictions from the 44 total gives the 37 guilty pleas figure, which is corroborated by contemporaneous reports that explicitly state similar plea numbers [4].
3. Why counts vary across reports and why dates matter
This case has been highly dynamic: dozens of defendants, multiple trial groupings, and rolling plea hearings mean published totals shift frequently; several outlets reported different snapshots at different dates [5] [4]. Some reports highlight only guilty pleas, others emphasize trial verdicts, and still others publish cumulative totals that blend both categories—so readers comparing headlines must check the date and whether the outlet is counting pleas, jury convictions, or both together [5] [1].
4. The broader context: plea‑driven prosecutions and what that implies here
The Feeding Our Future prosecutions reflect a broader reality in federal criminal practice where most defendants resolve matters through guilty pleas rather than jury trials; scholarly literature cited in the assembled sources explains that pleas dominate because they typically yield more lenient outcomes than loss at trial, a dynamic that helps explain the high number of pleas in large, complex fraud sweeps [6] [7]. In this particular investigation prosecutors have secured cooperation and plea agreements that both reduce the number of trials and amplify the numerical weight of plea convictions in public counts [5].
5. Limits of the available reporting and what remains unresolved
The answer above is constrained to reporting through mid‑March 2025 and relies on outlets that explicitly published cumulative counts and the Department of Justice announcement; later pleas, additional trials, or new charges would change these figures and some sources published differing snapshots at different times [1] [4] [5]. Public sources used here do not produce a single official running docket spreadsheet in one place within the provided reporting set, so the 37/7 split should be read as accurate to the cited reports’ dates rather than an immutable final tally [1] [3] [2].