When a Mercedes SUV was seen racing on I-75 north of Gainesville, federal authorities in Florida had been looking to investigate pastor Evan Edwards and his family for days.
The Edwardses were Canadian Christian missionaries who spent many years living in Turkey before relocating to Florida in 2019. On paper, they were a religious organization with a noble goal: to “communicate Christian love in doctrine and service to the poor.”
However, by the fall of 2020, the four-member family—dad Evan, mom Mary Jane, daughter Joy, 36, and son Josh, 30—had come under suspicion for committing a multimillion-dollar scam against the government’s Covid assistance program for small companies and organizations.
According to a federal forfeiture complaint, Josh falsely stated on paperwork that their ministry, ASLAN International Ministry, had 486 employees and a $2.7 million monthly payroll, and the Edwardses ended up receiving more than $8 million as a result.
Red flags were seriously raised by a federal probe. Among them: The accountant who allegedly gave his or her approval for the loan apparently had dementia and hadn’t worked for the company since 2017.
On September 17, 2020, at 8:49 p.m., three Florida Highway Patrol vehicles had already stopped the Edwardses’ beige Mercedes. The car included the entire family of four.
According to the complaint, Evan Edwards told the police they were going to a conference in Texas but was unable to elaborate.
Federal officers arrived and started searching the 2020 Mercedes. They discovered that this was not a usual road trip.
A laser printer was on Edwards’ lap as he was sat in the front passenger seat. Two clear garbage bags filled with shreds of paper were found in the back passenger seat, adjacent to his wife and daughter, the complaint claims.
According to the complaint, the family’s personal electronic gadgets were placed into a so-called Faraday bag, which blocks radio frequencies to prevent tracking.
In addition, the complaint mentions that there were several backpacks filled with external hard drives and USB drives as well as two more Faraday bags that contained laptops and tablets.
“Other electronic documents located in the search include a 49-page research manual published by the Bureau of Justice related to ‘Tracing Money Flows Through Financial Institutions,’” the federal complaint says.
The U.S. government’s haste to disperse humanitarian funds during the pandemic produced a gold mine for scammers both domestically and internationally. For allegedly cheating the Paycheck Protection Program since 2020, the Justice Department has prosecuted more than 177 individuals (PPP).
The $8 million that the Edwards family had been given was ultimately ordered to be forfeited by a federal judge in Florida after the government alleged it was the product of bank fraud and money laundering activities.
Authorities haven’t filed any criminal charges against any member of the Edwards family, though, more than 18 months after the Florida traffic encounter.
The lack of action is particularly puzzling in light of the fact that other alleged Covid-relief fraudsters have been charged with crimes despite allegedly stealing much less money.
