Global e·dentity™ Inc., a Delaware-registered Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and developer of patented multimodal vascular biometric technology, today announced it is ending its participation in U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) No. DHS 25-TSA-014 with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), citing a pattern of canceled meetings, unreviewed testing, and contradictory statements from senior TSA officials regarding the agency's handling of the program. The company is calling for independent congressional review, Inspector General review, and an executive order from President Trump to resolve the matter.

Global e·dentity remains committed to working with TSA and DHS more broadly and supports the agency's mission, but says it will no longer work with TSA's Science and Technology division given the pattern of fraud and deception the company says it has experienced there. The company credits Adam Stahl and Melissa Connolly personally with being forthright with Global e·dentity throughout this process, even as it says the division's rank-and-file were not.

According to company records, approximately 96% of scheduled meetings under the CRADA were canceled during the most recent 12-month period, following a cancellation rate exceeding 53% the year before. Critical activities — including laboratory testing, technical validation, and source-code review — were repeatedly delayed and never completed.

Global e·dentity says Melissa Connolly, TSA Executive Director, told the company directly that the agency's Science and Technology division lacks the in-house capability to review source code and must subcontract this work out. Submitted source code that TSA requested was returned to the company unreviewed. Separately, Adam Stahl informed the company in writing that the same code had in fact been reviewed and approved — but when asked who had conducted the review, he said he could not say, citing confidentiality. Global e·dentity is calling for an independent accounting of approximately $300,000 in possible fraudulent billing to DHS that Stahl disclosed to the company at a meeting on May 14, 2026, and separately disclosed to the company's NSA-veteran team leader, E. Johnson, as associated with meetings and services the company says were never provided under the CRADA.

Despite weekly communications with TSA leadership beginning in January 2025, including with Stahl, the company says its concerns about the program's management went unresolved month after month. According to Global e·dentity, Stahl repeatedly worked to push the project forward but was himself undercut by entrenched TSA staff resistant to replacing the agency's outdated facial recognition technology — and told the company directly, on multiple occasions, that this internal resistance was the source of the delays.

At a meeting attended by TSA and Global e·dentity personnel in August/September 2025, TSA's Arun Vemury, Senior Advisor, Biometric and Identity Technologies, stated that the company's product would be tested in a “very dumbed-down” security state and suggested the delays could force Global e·dentity into negotiating a new CRADA agreement. E. Johnson, the company's NSA-veteran team lead who was present, raised these concerns directly with Adam Stahl later in writing.

Global e·dentity also points to repeated changes in plans for a TSA pilot deployment as evidence of the program's mismanagement: a pilot project for which budget had reportedly been set aside was first slated for Nashville, then redirected by Stahl to Kansas City International Airport, before the pilot effort went dark entirely. All the while, the company's finalized Advanced National Security biometric system and software have been ready for deployment since September 2025.

“We invested millions of dollars, delivered years of engineering work, and repeatedly accommodated government technical requests,” said Robert Adams, Chair, President, and CEO of Global e·dentity. “What we encountered was a pattern of intentional delay, obstruction, and what we believe is rampant fraud within TSA's Science and Technology division. Senior officials told us directly that the division lacks the basic capability to do its job and subcontracts out work it is funded to perform in-house. In my view, this persists because entrenched staff are determined to protect the continued use of facial recognition technology rather than adopt a more secure and advanced, privacy-protective alternative. Congress and the White House need to find out why.”

Global e·dentity is calling on Congress to examine TSA's continued reliance on its use of facial recognition technology, the adequacy of the legal and privacy framework governing its deployment, and whether government personnel transitioning into private-sector biometric technology positions have observed applicable federal ethics and post-employment rules.

“Having served in the U.S. Navy and over a decade later as Deputy Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, I understand the importance of public accountability,” Adams added. “Federal service is a public trust. Congress should examine how taxpayer funds were spent, whether technology evaluations were conducted properly, and whether a more privacy-protective, U.S.-developed IP-based biometric identity alternative was given fair consideration.”

Global e·dentity is requesting immediate review by the appropriate congressional oversight committees and the DHS Office of Inspector General, and says it will preserve its records and cooperate fully with any inquiry. As a Veteran-owned company, Global e·dentity first raised these concerns with the DHS Office of Inspector General in August 2026 and has received no response to date. Given the urgency of safeguarding Americans' biometric data and the slow pace of congressional and oversight action on this issue to date, the company is also calling on President Trump to issue an executive order addressing national biometric identity standards and protections as a parallel path to resolution.

Global e·dentity has preserved contemporaneous written records of every communication, including internal correspondence documenting its concerns as they arose, and will provide them to congressional oversight committees and the DHS Inspector General upon request.

Global e·dentity acknowledges that it stands to benefit commercially from TSA's adoption of alternative biometric technology. The company is making the underlying facts and records in this matter available to congressional oversight committees and the DHS Inspector General precisely so that they, not Global e·dentity, can determine independently whether the CRADA was mismanaged and whether taxpayer funds were properly spent.

“Congress has had years to act on biometric privacy protections for the American public and has failed to do so,” Adams said. “This is bigger than one company or one agreement. Taxpayer accountability and the integrity of federal procurement are at stake, and the traveling public deserves clarity on how biometric identity systems are evaluated and deployed at America's airports. We are calling on President Trump to issue an executive order on the use of a national biometric identity system and its protections for Americans, so this matter can be resolved quickly rather than waiting on a Congress that has not acted.”

About Global e·dentity™ Inc.

Global e·dentity™ Inc. is a Delaware-registered Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business specializing in multimodal biometrics, digital identity, and health biometrics. Its patented subsurface vascular biometric technology serves government identity, aviation security, healthcare, financial services, and enterprise applications. The company maintains offices in the United States and Singapore.

Website: https://globaledentity.com/ | https://globaledentity.sg/

Acknowledgment: This publication concerns work conducted under DHS Cooperative Research and Development Agreement No. DHS 25-TSA-014. The views expressed are those of Global e·dentity™ Inc. and do not necessarily represent official DHS policy or endorsement.

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