Edgardo Navarro Suárez was charged Thursday with fraud and money laundering involving federal COVID-19 emergency funds through his firm JCA Development. The company has held 50 contracts with public agencies from 2017 through last year, with more than half related to public school repair and reconstruction.
Edgardo is the brother of Jorge Navarro Suárez, a representative of the New Progressive Party (PNP) for the district comprising the municipalities of Aguas Buenas, San Juan, and Guaynabo. According to the indictment, Edgardo, along with another brother, Ricardo Luis, misappropriated over $2 million in funds allocated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) between May 2020 and November 2021. Ricardo also appears as a representative of JCA Development in some of the 50 contracts signed with the government of Puerto Rico. The company reported capital of nearly $3 million in 2023.
The agencies involved in the school infrastructure projects include the Department of Education (DE), the Public Buildings Authority (AEP, in Spanish), the Office for the Maintenance of Public Schools (OMEP, in Spanish), and the Infrastructure Financing Authority (AFI, in Spanish). Among these four entities, JCA Development Inc. secured $12,967,339.76 in contracts.
Although AFI awarded the most contracts to JCA Development, the corporation earned more money from the DE due to the value of the contracts awarded. Of the nearly $13 million in contracts with the four government entities, Navarro Suárez’s corporation earned $10,212,156 from just six contracts between 2022 and 2024 with the DE. Four of these contracts were funded with pandemic-related funds.
A review of the contracts with the Department of Education reveals that JCA Development’s work in 17 schools included roof waterproofing, painting, landscaping, minor bathroom and acoustic ceiling repairs, and preventive maintenance.
The sole contract with OMEP, worth $418,124, was for painting, landscaping, general repairs, plumbing, and electrical work at the Fernando González Malavé School in Ponce. With the AEP, the Navarro Suárez company obtained two contracts to repair structural columns at the Berwind Schools, both high school and elementary, in San Juan.
The representative insisted that he never used his position to help his brothers get government contracts. “They were contractors before I became a legislator. That’s what they do for a living,” he told the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI).
In the Department of State’s corporate registry, the company incorporated in 2013 by Edgardo Navarro Suárez lists purposes such as general construction, consulting in the process of managing or acquiring private or government real estate; handling paperwork, bids, contracts, investment, and economic development; and even public and community relations, press, and publications.
In addition to the school repair contracts, JCA obtained a contract with the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) for $241,358 to rehabilitate eight bathrooms in a Central Administration building.
It also secured contracts with the Department of Agriculture and two of its dependencies for $345,137, another $364,500 with the Perpetual Trust for Special Communities, and $193,708 with the Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development of Puerto Rico. Additionally, it signed a $417,000 contract with the Municipality of Aguas Buenas, represented in the House of Representatives by his brother Jorge, and another for $102,084 with the General Services Administration.
