A Florida pastor and his son were arrested Wednesday, Dec. 14, and they were charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $8 million in federal Covid relief funds. They were planning to use some of the money to buy a luxury home near Walt Disney World.
Evan Edwards and his son, Josh, 30, were taken into custody just five months after an NBC News report raised questions over why the two had not been charged in the alleged scam. It was first identified in court papers in December 2020.
A source familiar with the investigation said NBC News’ previous reporting led law enforcement to prioritize the case.
The case began in April of 2020 when Josh Edwards applied for a $6 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan to cover payroll, rent, and utilities for his family’s ministry.
In the application, Edwards claimed that the organization, ASLAN International Ministry, had 486 employees and a monthly payroll of $2.7 million. This is according to a federal complaint.
When federal investigators came to the ministry’s office in Orlando, the door was locked and workers at businesses close by told them nobody was ever seen inside. When the ministry’s website was reviewed, it was found that donation links were inactive and text had been lifted from other sites.
Another red flag was that the man who was listed on the loan application as the accountant for the ministry suffered from dementia and hadn’t worked for the organization since 2017.
Federal agents arrived at the family’s home in New Smyrna Beach at 7 a.m. on Wednesday of this week.
Evan Edwards was wheeled out of the house in a wheelchair and agents escorted Josh Edwards out of the home and into a law enforcement vehicle with his hands cuffed behind his back.
According to the indictment, Evan and Josh Edwards knew that ASLAN’s actual number of employees and actual monthly payroll expenses were “significantly lower, or entirely nonexistent.”
