The former romantic partner of Feeding Our Future’s founder has been charged with tax crimes after allegedly not adequately reporting more than $1 million in pay he received for construction work for the nonprofit.
The complaint filed earlier this month against Empress Malcolm Watson Jr., 40, of Blaine, accused him of significantly underreporting his taxable income during the time that Aimee Bock, leader of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit, funneled money to his remodeling company.
Bock was convicted in federal court of seven felonies in March, including four counts of wire fraud.
Watson is charged with five felony tax crimes in Dakota County because the alleged crimes were committed while he lived in Rosemount, according to court records. He did not have a listed attorney as of Tuesday afternoon.
Between January 2020 and February 2022, Watson received more than $1 million from Feeding Our Future, the complaint said. Over that time, he spent more than a third of his earnings on jewelry, travel and vehicles.
The payments were made to Watson as an employee of Feeding Our Future and, separately, as a contractor hired to remodel its office. Watson underreported his earnings by hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years since, the complaint said.
The complaint totaled more than $64,000 that Watson owed in state income tax from 2020 through 2023. Each felony charge could result in a maximum of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.