The co-inventor of the Squatty Potty — once featured on the ABC hit show “Shark Tank” — faces charges of allegedly receiving sexually explicit images of a child, according to a Monday release from the Justice Department announcing an unsealed indictment against the business owner.
Federal authorities arrested 50-year-old Robert Edwards of Ivins, Utah, earlier this month after a four-and-a-half year investigation showed that he allegedly and knowingly received multiple images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to the DOJ release.
Edwards first came to the feds’ attention back in March 2021, when an undercover FBI agent joined a group chat used to trade CSAM and noted that participants viewed abuse videos streaming on the chat’s main screen, the DOJ said. The agent noted that participants were visible during the meeting, including a man later identified as Edwards.
In addition, FBI agents suspected last May that Edwards was purchasing CSAM via PayPal, which led them to execute a search warrant in November.
During the search, agents seized a cell phone from Edwards’ vehicle that contained what the DOJ described as “multiple videos and images of child sexual abuse material, some of which downloaded onto the cell phone just two weeks before the search warrant was executed.”
