[RedState] The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced Thursday that it had launched an unprecedented crackdown on fraudulent Biden-era loans made ostensibly to help businesses weather the brunt of the manufactured financial disaster enabled by COVID. Led by Vice President JD Vance’s White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud (see Trump Signs Task Force EO Launching 'Whole of Government' Assault on Fraud — RedState), the SBA announced it had referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL)—worth $22.2 billion—to the U.S. Treasury for collection. This marks a 180-degree turn from the Biden administration's policy of turning a blind eye to fraud, whether in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, Medicaid, or immigration. In fact, all 562,000 targets of this enforcement action had been identified by the Biden administration as fraudulent, but it decided to do nothing.
"From Day One, the Trump SBA has worked tirelessly to crack down on billions in pandemic-era fraud that the Biden Administration forgave or ignored. After extensive review, and with the strong support of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, we are taking our most decisive action yet to end a Biden-era scheme that protected over 560,000 borrowers tied to more than $22 billion in suspected pandemic-era fraud," said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. "For years, the Biden Administration shielded these borrowers from debt collectors as part of a de facto amnesty scheme — but today, they will finally face accountability. The SBA is deeply grateful to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for its partnership in this historic action, and we look forward to continued collaboration as we work to claw back stolen taxpayer dollars and hold fraudsters accountable."
This may only be the tip of the iceberg. The SBA notes, "As Vice President Vance outlined in his Day One memo to the Task Force, ’research findings show over 1,000,000 suspicious Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.’ Indeed, the SBA approved approximately $1.2 trillion in PPP and COVID-EIDL loans from 2020-2021, of which at least $200 billion is estimated to be fraudulent, according to the SBA Office of the Inspector General."
Under federal law, delinquent debts must be referred to the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service once they become sufficiently overdue, and loans flagged by internal fraud controls are expected to be sent to law‑enforcement authorities. But first, the Treasury Department makes an offer you’d like to refuse, but can’t. |