>
A pastor and his son have been arrested after claiming $8.4 million in COVID relief funds for a family Christian ministry they claimed employed 486 people.
Evan Edwards and his 30-year-old son Joshua were arrested at his family’s home in New Smyrna Beach in Florida around 7 a.m. Wednesday.
The arrest came more than two years after the family, including Edward’s wife, Mary Jane Evans, and 36-year-old daughter Joy, were pulled over by Florida Highway Patrol as they tried to flee the country in a pickup truck. Mercedes, according to a federal complaint.
Federal agents found bags of shredded paper in the car and its electrical devices in a Faraday bag, a bag designed to protect against data loss.
They were arrested but released the next day and were understood to have fled to Canada until Evan and his son returned to live in the house independently.
The whereabouts of Mary Jane and Joy are unknown.
In a six-count indictment unsealed Wednesday, Joshua was charged with making false statements on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications on behalf of his organization, ASLAN International Ministry.
Evan Edwards was wheeled out of the home as officers escorted Josh out of the home and into a police vehicle with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Joshua Edwards is arrested with his hands behind his back on Wednesday. His father, Evan, was wheeled out of the family’s New Smyrna Beach home.
According to a 2020 federal court filing, ASLAN Vice President Joshua Edwards initially applied for a $6.91 million loan using documents to paint the church as a successful organization that had $51 million in revenue in 2019.
The family’s loan was approved in May 2020 for a total of $8.4 million, almost two million more than requested.
Secret Service agents investigating the fraudulent activity later discovered that the money had been deposited into accounts belonging to Joshua, Joy, and Evan, which had only $100 in them prior to the deposit.
“The perpetrators of the fraud attempted to conceal the source, nature and location of the bank fraud proceeds by moving the proceeds through numerous bank accounts, under different names,” prosecutors said in a document.
In 2020, the US government seized more than $5.6 million and $1.8 million, respectively, from two Bank of America accounts.
Investigators also found another $868,250 that had been deposited into a First American Trust FSB account under First American Title insurance company.
That money was going toward a $3.71 million home at Disney World’s Golden Oak resort, prosecutors allege.
The arrest came more than two years after Florida Highway Patrol pulled over the family, including Edward’s wife, Mary Jane Evans, and 36-year-old daughter Joy, as they tried to flee the country in a Mercedes.
Business records show that ASLAN operated as a family-run, not-for-profit ‘foreign ministry’ with father Evan Edwards as president and president, son Josh as vice president and daughter Joy as secretary.
That same month, Secret Service agents visited the address associated with the organization but found no one there.
They then obtained a search warrant on September 16 to try to locate the family at their New Smyrna Beach home, only to discover that it had been evicted with no sign of family.
Neighbors told agents they last saw the family on September 8, when Evan and Josh asked if they had been interviewed by investigators.
Authorities later discovered that the ministry’s website, which contained generic information from other sites, was taken down around September 12.
The family is believed to have fled after learning that investigators had found out about their alleged plan.
The Edwardeses reportedly planned to buy a $3.71 million home at Disney World’s Golden Oak resort (pictured) before fleeing the country.
Then in 2020, the US government seized more than $5.6 million from one Bank of America account, along with $1.8 million from a second
The next day, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement located the family traveling on I-75 where they were pulled over for speeding.
The family allegedly told police they were headed to a conference in Texas but were unable to provide any details, according to prosecutors.
Investigators later obtained a search warrant for the car, where they found bags of shredded documents, as well as suitcases and several laptops and tablets.
In the rear passenger seat were two clear garbage bags containing what appeared to be shredded documents. In the rear cargo area, several suitcases were stacked from floor to ceiling, along with a document shredder,” the documents stated.
The shredder had been purchased just two hours after agents visited the family’s New Smyrna home, according to the report.
The church was reportedly founded in 2005 in Ohio, but then applied to conduct business as a foreign non-profit organization in Florida in 2018.
Further investigation would also show that the family’s church was not a legitimate organization.
ASLAN International Ministry was reportedly founded in 2005 in Ohio, but then applied to conduct business as a foreign non-profit organization in Florida in 2018, according to Click Orlando.
Evan Edwards grew up in Edmonton, Canada, according to a NBC investigation earlier this year who challenged federal authorities for failing to take action against the family.
Edward’s devout Christianity began in his 20s when his parents could no longer give him money and he passed everything to church, his cousin told NBC.
For some time the family lived in Turkey, acting as Christian missionaries. Edward has said that he distributed more than 500,000 copies of the New Testament during his time in the Muslim-majority country.
“I have been arrested and harassed by the police and the army in Turkey more than 50 times,” he said in a 2012 interview with The Christian Post.
I’ve jumped fences, escaped through side doors, and hidden in the most unlikely places. The opposition came in the form of the government shutting down my book distribution company and having to report it to the police.’
They returned to Canada about a decade ago and stayed there for some time.
It wasn’t until October 2018 that the family purchased the three-bedroom home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, for $332,500.