ICE handed $12M to a 'surveillance' firm whose 'lead scientist' was a stock photo: report

Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave a $12.2 million no-bid contract to a company that appears to have fabricated staff and was originally founded to hold its founder's sailboat, according to a new report.

ICE contracted with Edge Ops LLC for a program called Project SAFE HAVEN, an AI surveillance tool that tracks immigrants' daily routines, habits, and real-time locations and categorizes them as potential threats. But reporting by The Lever found a series of fabrications on the company's website.

On the company's website, the headshot for the lead computer scientist turned out to be a stock photo, according to The Lever.

"The original image is still on offer for royalty-free use on the Dreamstime website," The Lever reported.

Although Edge Ops posted the image as a photo of "Diya Das," the stock photo was labeled on its original site as "Indian lady relax on sofa using tablet look at camera."

The company is led by Robert "Pic" Piccerillo, a former Defense Department official, and Jennifer Piccerillo, a former Raytheon executive. When Piccerillo incorporated Edge Ops in 2014, he wrote in the incorporation documents that the purpose of the company was "to house and to hold a new sailboat," according to The Lever. The company pivoted to defense contracting after Donald Trump's 2024 election win.

The company's website featured big, bold quotes from a happy client named Sarah Mitchell, who was supposedly the chief operating officer of InnovativeTech Solutions.

"Working with Edge Ops has been a game changer for our business," Mitchell's quote read. "We highly recommend Edge Ops to anyone looking to enhance their business operations and drive sustainable growth!"

However, The Lever found no one with that name working at the supposed company, and Edge Ops later altered the quote, Mitchell's name, and her title.

The company also claimed to have helped with "ultra-early" wildfire detection technology, and used photos that came from the German company Dryad Networks, The Lever reported.

When The Lever reached out to Dryad Networks' CEO, Carsten Brinkschulte, he said: "I don't know why they use photos of our tech."

When asked if he had ever worked with Piccerillo, Brinkschulte said, "I have no clue who this guy is."

After The Lever's reporting, Edge Ops overhauled its website. All mention of Project SAFE HAVEN was removed, along with details about the company's leadership team and past clients. The stock photo "lead computer scientist" also disappeared from the site.