With the arrival of Covid, the United States government “put its foot on the accelerator” to help countless people financially, however, this caused opportunistic people and both nationals and foreigners to take advantage of the need of millions of taxpayers, triggering the arrest of 177 people for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program, PPP.
Such is the case of the Edwards, a family that emigrated from Canada to the United States in 2019 and who lived in Turkey for many years.
The Canadian family ran a faith-based charity with a ‘noble’ mission: “Communicating Christian love in doctrine and service to the poor”.
One year after arriving in the United States, Evan Edwards, along with his wife and two children, 17 and 36 years, were suspected of carrying out a multi-million dollar fraud directed do to the government’s Covid relief program for small businesses and non-profits.
The Edwardses are known to have received just over $8 million after Evan’s son, Josh, submitted documents falsely claiming that his ministry, ASLAN International Ministry, had 486 employees under a monthly payroll of $2.7 million, according to a federal forfeiture complaint.
Last 17 September 2020 three Florida Highway Patrol cars stopped a beige Mercedes belonging to the Edwardses with the entire family inside; the parent indicated that they were on their way to a conference in Texas.
According to the complaint against the Edwards, the police detected inside the car that Evan was the co-pilot and was carrying a printer on his lap, while the missionary’s wife and daughter were in the back seat. What most caught the attention of the policemen is that in the back seat there were some bags with shredded papers, as well as a Faraday bag in which the family’s electronic devices were kept with the intention of avoiding being tracked.
In the suitcases were financial records, as well as other Faraday bags with laptops and tablets inside, as well as backpacks with hard drives and USB drives.
A judge The federal government of Florida ordered the confiscation of the $8 million that the Edwards had received after the government assured that the profits are part of a crime of bank fraud and money laundering.
Despite the crime committed by the Edward family, authorities have not yet charged any members of the family.