Defense Contractor Douglas Edelman Pleads Guilty to Tax Crimes

Douglas Edelman, one of the U.S.’s largest known tax evaders, pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax crimes and defrauding the government on income he made from $7 billion in military contracts in Afghanistan.

Edelman, the subject of a front-page Wall Street Journal article in March, hid profits he made from a company supplying fuel and services to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the Middle East by stashing them in foreign bank accounts and investments, prosecutors had alleged. The Justice Department said Edelman created false documents and made false statements that his French wife, who wasn’t subject to U.S. tax, founded and owned the company.