Politics
JD Vance Drops The Hammer On Over 800,000 Fraudsters In America
Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that roughly 870,000 borrowers tied to suspected COVID-era fraud will be permanently blocked from accessing future Small Business Administration loans.
The sweeping crackdown targets abuse of the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, two massive pandemic relief efforts that were designed to keep businesses and workers afloat during the COVID-19 crisis.
According to the administration, the borrowers were connected to as much as $39 billion in allegedly fraudulent loans.
Vance said taxpayers were taken for a ride by people who exploited emergency programs that were supposed to help legitimate businesses survive.
“As it happens with so many of the programs that are born out of the generosity of the American taxpayer, we had many, many people who took advantage of those programs, people who decided to steal from the American taxpayer, steal money that was supposed to go to small businesses and American workers as well,” Vance said in his latest fraud crackdown effort.
He then delivered a blunt warning to anyone caught abusing federal programs.
“If you screw the American taxpayer, the government is now gonna say you’re cut off — no more.”
The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to root out pandemic-era fraud and recover taxpayer money that federal officials say was improperly obtained.
VP Vance at @WHFraudTF event:
“No fraud is too small. If you tried to steal money from the American taxpayer, if you took funds that ought by right have gone to American small businesses or American workers, not only are we going to cut you off, we’re going to prosecute you.”🔥 pic.twitter.com/I1kbztv8Yr
— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) September 14, 2026
The SBA has spent much of 2026 conducting state-by-state reviews of PPP and EIDL borrowers, suspending tens of thousands of recipients tied to suspected fraud and referring questionable loans for collection or possible prosecution.
Earlier this year, the agency said it had sent hundreds of thousands of suspected fraudulent loans worth billions of dollars to the Treasury Department for collections.
Federal prosecutors have also continued bringing criminal cases involving applicants accused of inventing employees, fabricating payroll records and creating fake businesses to obtain relief money.
Attorney General Todd Blanche highlighted one case involving an individual accused of creating dozens of phony businesses while operating just one legitimate company called “Fur Lives Matter.”
The administration has made pandemic fraud one of its highest-profile enforcement targets.
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Vance chairs the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which coordinates efforts across federal agencies to identify improper payments, recover taxpayer money and pursue criminal cases where prosecutors believe fraud can be proven.
JD Vance said during the Republican midterm convention that roughly $250 billion had already been recovered through the administration’s wider anti-fraud efforts.
The SBA has separately estimated that pandemic-era PPP and EIDL fraud could total as much as $200 billion.
The agency has already suspended large groups of borrowers in states including California, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin as investigators comb through pandemic loan records.
Those suspensions can prevent borrowers from receiving new SBA loans and from participating in certain federal contracting programs.
The latest announcement dramatically expands that effort, placing hundreds of thousands of borrowers on a permanent blacklist for future SBA lending.
For the administration, the message is straightforward: borrowers accused of exploiting emergency programs intended for struggling businesses could now find themselves permanently shut out of federal small-business assistance.
