Vice President JD Vance was among Trump administration officials announcing findings of alleged widespread COVID-19 pandemic-era fraud linked to small businesses, totaling more than $39 billion. The announcement from the Small Business Administration (SBA) in Missouri highlighted the federal government's efforts to crack down on fraud, something Vance has taken a keen interest in since January 2025. The SBA said hundreds of thousands of businesses, some legitimate and some fake, had been linked to fraudulent payments of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).
"The American people have every right to expect that when they write a check to the IRS, when they write a check to the federal government, that money is going to go to where the law says it should go and not to fraudsters," Vance told reporters on Monday afternoon. Newsweek reached out to the government's Pandemic Oversight panel for further comment. The SBA said it had already worked to suspend over 150,000 businesses as part of its crackdown, with Monday's announcement vastly expanding those targeted.
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the 870,000 organizations suspended from receiving government payments were tied to over $39 billion in suspected fraud, mostly during the pandemic. She said that demand letters were being sent to those suspected of defrauding taxpayers, warning they must pay their debts or face further legal action. The effort falls under the White House's own efforts tied to eliminating fraud, which it has often blamed the Biden administration for.
Some of the pandemic-era relief, however, fell under the first Trump administration. "Pandemic loan relief was meant to keep American small businesses alive during government lockdowns—not line the pockets of fraudsters," U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release.
"The defendants charged during our summer surge allegedly fabricated businesses, submitted false payroll and revenue claims, stole identities, and concealed foreign ties on their applications—but they will now be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Don Kettl, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, told Newsweek that Congress had worked with the first Trump administration to get the funds out at the height of the pandemic. "The push was on because COVID had devastated many parts of the economy, and the administration wanted to get money quickly out the door," Kettl said. "At the early stages, recipients didn't have to do much more than certify that they met the requirements of the program and that they'd use the money for COVID relief.
More than half the money had been distributed before the SBA began instituting tighter controls. "Then, when SBA started referring cases for investigation of fraud, the Inspector General didn't have enough information to act in two thirds of them. That's the product of an avalanche of cases without enough employees to document them." While California was not included in the latest announcement, the SBA has previously said it had suspended 112,000 borrowers, totaling an alleged fraud amount of $8.6 billion.
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