ST. LOUIS 鈥 A woman indicted for defrauding a federal child nutrition program out of some $20 million will remain in jail until her case is resolved after violating the conditions of her release and refusing to surrender to the FBI last week.
Federal Magistrate Judge Joseph Dueker on Wednesday granted prosecutors鈥 Aug. 15 motion to revoke Connie Bobo鈥檚 bond.
Bobo, of St. Charles, was charged in October with wire fraud and identity theft in connection with a scheme to claim millions of dollars in federal reimbursement for meals she claimed her nonprofit, New Heights Community Resources, served to children. She has pleaded not guilty.
The Post-Dispatch first reported on her nonprofit and the food program in November 2022. The newspaper found her nonprofit had claimed over $20 million from two federally funded child nutrition programs in two years and that her nonprofit purchased a $975,000 house where she lived.
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She was released on bond pending trial. Among the conditions of her release was that she relinquish control of the finances at the day care she owns, on Harry S. Truman Boulevard in St. Charles.
But earlier this month, prosecutors sought to revoke her bond after they say she admitted to a pretrial officer that she still controlled the day care鈥檚 finances.
On Aug. 28, the FBI went to Bobo鈥檚 home to execute an arrest warrant, but she refused to exit her house for almost two hours. Agents knocked on her door, announced themselves and called her cellphone. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman contacted her lawyer to get him to tell her to surrender, and he assured him she would.
鈥淚t was not until the FBI agents on the scene that morning began the process of breaching the front door of her residence that Defendant exited her house through a side door and was quickly arrested,鈥 Wiseman wrote.
Prosecutors said the conduct fits a pattern. They point out she was also charged with obstruction for forging an invoice sought by a subpoena during their 2023 investigation.