Stephen Moore, co-founder of Unleash Prosperity, and Peter St. Onge, senior economist at the Heritage Foundation, discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle fraud on “The Bottom Line.”
FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Small Business Administration has referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent loans totaling more than $22.2 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department for collection.
“After an extensive review and with the strong support of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, we are taking our most decisive action yet to end a Biden-era scheme that protected more than 560,000 borrowers tied to more than $22 billion in suspected pandemic-era fraud,” Loeffler added.
The loans, largely stemming from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the COVID Economic Injury Disaster loan program, were flagged for suspected fraud during former President Joe Biden’s administration but were never sent to the Treasury Department for collection, the SBA said in its statement.
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SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The SBA accused former President Joe Biden of deliberately protecting suspected fraudsters by refusing to refer them to the Treasury Department.
“For years, the Biden administration has protected these borrowers from debt collectors as part of a de facto amnesty scheme – but today they will finally be held accountable. The SBA is deeply grateful to the U.S. Treasury Department for its partnership in this historic action, and we look forward to continued collaboration as we work to recover stolen taxpayer dollars and hold fraudsters accountable,” Loeffler said.
In addition to referring the loans to the Treasury Department, the SBA also referred the borrowers to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The SBA is required by law to submit delinquent debts to the Treasury Department, but according to the SBA’s announcement, none of the more than 560,000 borrowers were required to repay the $22.2 billion they owed and fewer than 1,000 of them faced investigations by the SBA’s Office of Inspector General.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance (C) speaks during a Fraud Task Force meeting in the White House Indian Treaty Room on March 27, 2026 in Washington, DC. Vice President J.D. Vance held the Fraud Task Force Meeting with the goal of reducing federal spending (Heather Diehl/Getty Images/Getty Images)
The effort to redirect the loans and demand repayment from the borrowers is being led by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which is led by Vice President J.D. Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson.
The sweeping fraud referrals are part of a broader anti-graft effort overseen by Vance and his task force. Working with the task force, the SBA is now identifying a wide range of potential pandemic loan fraud.
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others meet during the first meeting of Vice President J.D. Vance’s Task Force (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
LOEFFLER AIMS FOR $50BILLION SBA PROGRAM THAT’S ‘NEVER SEEN’, BANS 112K-PLUS COVID LOAN FRAUDERS
“Investigation results indicate that there are more than 1,000,000 suspect Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans,” Vance wrote in a memo on the first day of his task force.
The government estimates that of the $1.2 trillion in PPP and EIDL loans the SBA approved between 2020 and 2021, at least $200 billion is fraudulent, the agency wrote in a Friday memo.
The SBA has launched new measures to combat fraud, including verification of citizenship and date of birth and a state-by-state investigation into fraudsters. a memo from early April.
The agency has already suspended nearly 112,000 borrowers suspected of obtaining fraudulent loans in California and Minnesota.
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