A Florida pastor and his adult son were arrested Wednesday on charges related to an alleged $8 million COVID-19 relief scam that involved an attempt to buy a luxury home in a Walt Disney World development.
Evan Edwards and his son, Josh, 30, were taken into custody this week over a case that began in April 2020, when Josh applied for a $6 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan to ostensibly cover payroll, rent, and utilities for his family’s ministry, NBC News reports.
The application claimed the ministry, ASLAN International Ministry, employed 486 people and had a monthly payroll of $2.7 million. The organization ultimately was approved for an $8.4 million loan.
When federal investigators showed up at the ministry’s listed Orlando address, however, the door was locked and employees at neighboring businesses told them no one was ever there, according to a federal forfeiture complaint. Donation links on the ministry’s website were found to be inactive and sections of text were apparently taken from other religious sites.
Citing an interview with the ministry accountant's son, federal prosecutors said that the accountant had not done any work for the group since 2017 and was also suffering from dementia.
Transplants from Canada, the Edwards family did missionary work in Turkey for a number of years before settling in a newly-built community in New Smyrna Beach in Florida in 2019. According to the complaint, federal agents attempted to execute a search warrant on the home in September 2020, but the place had been "cleared out" and no one was there.
Later that evening, the family’s Mercedes SUV was pulled over by Florida police for speeding on I-75 north of Gainesville, according to a police report.
Federal agents found bags of shredded documents in the vehicle as well as suitcases of financial records. The family’s electronic devices were stowed in Faraday bags — which block radio frequencies — to prevent them from being tracked, according to the complaint.
Court records show that the family was taken into custody on an unrelated immigration charge but was released the next day when the case was dismissed.
According to the complaint, the family had attempted to use a portion of the PPP loan money to buy a $3.7 million 4,700-square-foot home in a new Disney World development called Golden Oaks, but the deal never closed.
In April 2021, a federal judge in Florida found the Edwards family had committed bank fraud and money laundering crimes and ordered the forfeiture of the $8.4 million. The family did not challenge the ruling.
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