Vance task force reveals Biden admin 'protected' 562K pandemic loans in $22.2B suspected fraud scheme
Loans were flagged during the Biden administration but never sent to Treasury for collections, the SBA says
FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Small Business Administration referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent loans totaling over $22.2 billion to the U.S. Department of Treasury for collections.
"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," SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"After 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 over 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 never sent to Treasury for collections, the SBA said in its statement.
The SBA accused
former President Joe Biden of deliberately protecting suspected fraudsters by refusing to refer them to the Treasury.
"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," Loeffler said.
In addition to referring the loans to Treasury, the SBA has also referred the borrowers to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The SBA is legally required to refer delinquent debts to the Treasury, but, according to the SBA announcement, none of the more than 560,000 borrowers had been compelled to repay the $22.2 billion they owed and less than 1,000 were facing investigations 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.
The effort to refer the loans and seek repayment from the borrowers is being led by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which is led by Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson.
"Finding and going after these billions of dollars was only possible with the task force’s whole of government effort. The Vice President is proud of the several milestones the task force has already achieved, and it’s only the beginning," a spokesperson for Vance told Fox News Digital.
The sweeping fraud referrals are part of a broader anti-graft push overseen by Vance and his task force. In conjunction with the task force, the SBA is now pinpointing a wide swath of potential pandemic loan fraud.
"Research findings show over 1,000,000 suspicious Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans," Vance wrote in a memo on the first day of his task force.
The administration estimates that of the $1.2 trillion in PPP and EIDL loans the SBA approved between 2020-2021, at least $200 billion is fraudulent, the agency wrote in a Friday memo.
The SBA has launched new measures to crack down on fraud, including citizenship and birth date verification and a state-by-state investigation into fraudsters, according to
an early April memo.
The agency has
already suspended nearly 112,000 borrowers suspected of obtaining fraudulent loans in California and Minnesota.
