Unleash Prosperity founder Stephen Moore and Heritage Foundation senior economist Peter St. Onge discusses the Trump administration's push to fight fraud on 'The Bottom Line.'
FIRST ON FOX – The US Small Business Association has referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent loans totaling more than $22.2 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department for collection, the SBA said in a statement Friday.
“Since Day One, the Trump SBA has worked tirelessly to eliminate billions of dollars in Biden's pardoned fraud or negligence,” SBA Director Kelly Loeffler told Fox News Digital in a statement.
These loans, mostly from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the COVID Economic Injury Disaster program, were flagged for alleged fraud during the administration of former President Joe Biden but were not sent to the Treasury for collection, the SBA said in its statement.
The SBA has accused former President Joe Biden of deliberately protecting fraud suspects by refusing to turn them over to the Treasury.
“For years, the Biden Administration has protected these lenders from debt collectors as part of the amnesty program – but today, they will finally face accountability. The SBA is grateful to the US Treasury Department for its cooperation in this historic action, and we look forward to continued cooperation as we work to recover stolen taxpayer dollars and catch the scam.”
Kelly Loeffler, director of the US Small Business Administration (SBA), left, and Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, Wednesday, Ap (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In addition to referring loans to the Treasury, the SBA also referred borrowers to the US Department of Justice.
The SBA is required by law to report delinquent loans to the Treasury but, according to the SBA's announcement, none of the 560,000 borrowers were forced to repay the $22.2 billion they owed and less than 1,000 faced an investigation from the SBA's Office of Inspector General.
“Over $22 billion. We mean business. If you commit fraud, we will find you,” a senior White House official told Fox News Digital.
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The effort to transfer loans and seek repayment from borrowers is being led by the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, assisted by Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson.
“Getting and going after these billions of dollars was only possible with a whole-of-party effort. The Vice President is proud of the few steps the party has already taken, and it's only the beginning,” a Vance spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The widespread fraud referrals are part of a broader anti-graft program overseen by Vance and his team. In conjunction with the task force, the SBA is now identifying a number of potential mortgage loan scams.
US Vice President JD Vance (C) speaks during a Fraud Task Force meeting in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House on March 27, 2026, in Washington, DC. Vice President JD Vance held a Fraud Task Force meeting aimed at reducing federal spending (Photos by Heather Diehl / Getty Images)
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“Findings of the study show more than 1,000,000 suspicious Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans,” Vance wrote in a memo on the first day of his team.
Administrators estimate that of the $1.2 trillion of PPP and EIDL loans the SBA has approved between 2020-2021, at least $200 billion is fraudulent, the agency wrote in its Friday memo.
The task force, led by Vice President JD Vance, seeks to target federal benefits fraud, strengthening oversight of public finance managers in Democratic-led states. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The SBA has introduced new ways to crack down on fraud, including verification of citizenship and date of birth and state-by-state investigations of fraudsters, according to the original April memo.
The agency has already suspended nearly 112,000 borrowers suspected of receiving fraudulent loans in California and Minnesota.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Treasury Department, the Small Business Association, and the Federal Trade Commission for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
