An Eden Prairie man who fled the country was sent back to the U.S. where he's been arrested and charged with fraudulently applying for more than $2.1 million in COVID-19 relief funds.

Harold Bennie Kaeding, 72, fled to Colombia in an apparent attempt to evade prosecution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota. He returned to the U.S. last week and was arrested Sunday in Miami.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Kaeding applied for several fraudulent loans through the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program between April and December 2020.

Kaeding "capitalized on the COVID-19 pandemic to exploit emergency funding mechanisms to knowingly submit numerous false and fraudulent applications to receive loan proceeds he knew he was not entitled to receive," according to the indictment against him.

While some of his requests were either denied or recalled, Kaeding ended up receiving about $658,490 of the $2,182,625 for which he applied.

He did not use those funds for permissible business expenses, according to the charges. Instead, he transferred that money to other bank accounts he controlled and used them for his personal purposes.

He allegedly withdrew at least $84,000 in cash from various ATMs; spent $80,000 on a mortgage payment to avoid foreclosure on the house where he was living; and made wire transfers to family and friends, including at least $51,000 to his spouse's bank account, according to court documents.

Kaeding is accused of submitting loan applications using the names of family members and four Minnesota entities that did not file tax returns and did not report the payment of wages for any employees in 2019 and 2000. Some of those corporations had dissolved years earlier but filed for reinstatement in April or May 2020.

Kaeding included forged tax returns and bogus bank account statements with his applications, according to the indictment. He also made false statements about the number of employees, the amount of payroll expenses, and the intended uses of the loans.

He is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.

Attempts to contact Kaeding's Miami lawyer were unsuccessful.