Kansas City, Missouri— Vice President JD Vance announced Monday the Trump administration will suspend roughly 870,000 people suspected of defrauding pandemic-era small business programs from receiving future federal loans.

The vice president contended that borrowers who stole taxpayer money should no longer be eligible to receive loans from government-backed programs.

“If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say you’re cut off, no more,” Vance told reporters. “You shouldn’t be applying anymore, and if you do apply, you’re no longer able to get those benefits.”

His remarks came as the Justice Department announced a slew of cases in a nationwide crackdown on fraud involving theCOVID-19-eraPaycheck Protection Program.

The department’s enforcement push, which ran from June 12 through Sept. 1 and was dubbed “Heartland fraud surge,” resulted in actions involving more than 160 defendants and approximately $245 million in intended losses to taxpayers. The operation was put into action more than five years after the government pushed emergency loans to businesses nationwide that were struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The initiative involved prosecutors from 44 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, along with more than 20 federal and state investigative partners.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the suspensions announced by the vice president are tied to an estimated $39 billion in suspected fraud from across 45 states and territories. Combined with earlier enforcement actions, Loeffler said the SBA has now suspended borrowers connected to roughly $49 billion in alleged fraud across all 50 states.

SBA has previously stated that all suspended borrowers are barred from future small-business and disaster loans and from programs including its 8(a) federal contracting program.

“Exposing these criminals is only the first step,” Loeffler said. “This summer, we referred $22 billion to the United States Treasury for collections.”

The SBA had previously announced that it had referred more than 560,000 suspected fraudulent borrowers, tied to roughly $22.2 billion in delinquent PPP and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan program loans, to the Treasury Department for collection.

While not criminal prosecutions, treasury collections are aimed at recovering outstanding debt owed to the federal government.

Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS News in an interview Monday, “We have 500 prosecutors now in D.C. and around the country focused on this. We have prosecutors in all 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices now directly focused on this.”

Source: CBS News