{"id":52030,"date":"2026-01-01T22:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52030"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:05:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:05:30","slug":"sba-says-it-has-suspended-6900-minnesota-borrowers-over-suspected-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52030","title":{"rendered":"SBA says it has suspended \u20186,900 Minnesota borrowers\u2019 over suspected fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler\u2002<\/u><\/a>said Thursday night that her agency has suspended \u201c6,900 Minnesota borrowers\u201d over suspected fraudulent activity regarding COVID-era lending programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loeffler said the SBA over the last week reviewed \u201cthousands\u201d of potentially \u201cfraudulent\u201d Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) payouts that were approved in Minnesota. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, our agency took action to suspend 6,900 Minnesota borrowers amid suspected fraudulent activity. In total, these borrowers were approved for 7,900 PPP and EIDL loans worth approximately $400M,\u201d Loeffler said<\/u><\/a> on social platform X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the implicated individuals would be banned from all SBA loan programs, \u201cincluding disaster loans, going forward. We will also refer every case, where appropriate, to federal law enforcement for prosecution and repayment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspension comes as the House Committee on Small Business started an investigation into \u201cfraud and concealment\u201d within the PPP and EIDL, both programs that were established during the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loeffler said on Monday<\/u><\/a> that SBA will pause annual grants to Minnesota amid the ongoing probe into the COVID-era programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSBA is pausing annual funding to Minnesota while we investigate $430 million in suspected PPP fraud across the state,\u201d she said on X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Loeffler sent a letter<\/u><\/a> to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) saying that SBA would pause $5.5 million in annual funding \u201cpending further review.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors have charged<\/u><\/a> nearly 100 people linked to an investigation<\/u><\/a> into the fraud within Minnesota\u2019s social programs, and Walz has directed<\/u><\/a> a third-party audit of Medicaid billing within Minnesota\u2019s Department of Human Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal Department of Health and Human Services said<\/u><\/a> earlier this week it would pause all child care payments to Minnesota, citing a video posted by independent journalist Nick Shirley who outlined his investigation into fraud allegations in the North Star State\u2019s day care centers and other businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter years, the American people will finally begin to see the criminals who stole from law-abiding taxpayers held accountable \u2014 and this is just the first state,\u201d Loeffler said on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler\u2002said Thursday night that her agency has suspended \u201c6,900 Minnesota borrowers\u201d over suspected fraudulent activity regarding COVID-era lending programs.  Loeffler said the SBA over the last week reviewed \u201cthousands\u201d of potentially \u201cfraudulent\u201d Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) payouts that were approved in Minnesota.  \u201cToday, our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[32023,1752,730,1196,9274,3637],"class_list":["post-52030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-borrower","tag-fraud","tag-loan","tag-minnesota","tag-sba","tag-suspension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52032,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52030\/revisions\/52032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}