{"id":166909,"date":"2026-02-06T17:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166909\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:03:10","slug":"small-business-admin-uncovers-8-6-billion-in-fraud-in-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166909\/","title":{"rendered":"Small business admin. uncovers $8.6 billion in fraud in CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

More massive fraud<\/a> has been uncovered in California.<\/p>\n

Only a day after the state\u2019s Attorney-General Rob Bonta dismissed<\/a> as \u201dbaseless\u201d claims of widespread fraud raging across the state, the Small Business Administration announced they\u2019ve uncovered $8.6 billion in dodgy COVID-era loans.<\/p>\n

SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler announced Friday the agency has suspended more than 111,000 California borrowers suspected of committing fraud during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler speaks at Pacific Palisades press event Getty Images<\/p>\n

They are accused of collecting money under the paycheck protection and economic injury disaster loans from the federal government that were supposed to ease the economic burden from COVID.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, the Trump SBA is taking decisive action to deliver accountability in a state whose unaccountable welfare policies have created a culture of fraud and abuse at the expense of law-abiding taxpayers and small business owners,\u201d Loeffler told The Post.<\/p>\n

FBI agents carrying boxes our of a headquarters in Fremont, CA. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThis staggering number represents the most significant crack-down on those who defrauded pandemic programs, and it illuminates the scale of corruption that the Biden Administration tolerated for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we did in Minnesota, we are actively working with federal law enforcement to identify the criminals who defrauded American taxpayers, hold them to account, and recoup the stolen funds,<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we continue our state-by-state work, our message is clear: pandemic-era fraudsters will not get a pass under this Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pandemic-era snap of mask and money. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

The SBA announcement comes amid a crackdown by the SBA in Minnesota<\/a>, where the agency suspended 6,900 borrowers associated with 7,900 potentially fraudulent COVID-era loans worth about $400 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loeffler recently notified Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that SBA would freeze more than $5.5 million in annual funding to the North Star State pending further review, the Post reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

In her letter<\/a> to Walz, Loeffler wrote that the \u201caction follows alarming findings: individuals indicted in the $1 billion Somali fraud scheme also received at least $3 million in PPP loans, and SBA has since identified 13,600 additional PPP loans in Minnesota \u2013 totaling $430 million \u2013 suspected as fraudulent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal agents loading boxes in San Francisco, CA. AP<\/p>\n

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler at press event for Pacific Palisades fire victims. Carlin Stiehl for California Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWith dozens of investigations underway, the conclusion is unavoidable: Minnesota cannot be trusted to administer federal tax dollars. Its socialist welfare system has enabled fraud at industrial scale, at the expense of honest Americans \u2013 and these are the consequences,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More massive fraud has been uncovered in California. Only a day after the state\u2019s Attorney-General Rob Bonta dismissed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3149,7,9,8,536,657,457,4182,72584,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-166909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-attorney-general","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-exclusive","14":"tag-gavin-newsom","15":"tag-metro","16":"tag-tax-fraud","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}