Vance: Over 870,000 Alleged COVID Fraudsters Banned From Federal Loans
“If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say you’re cut off.”
Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration banned more than 870,000 people suspected of COVID fraud from receiving federal loans.
These fraudsters allegedly exploited the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster loans to steal $39 billion.
Vance said:
FRAUD CRACKDOWN: Vice President JD Vance: “We are going to suspend 870K people PERMANENTLY, people who defrauded the government over the last couple of years, the last couple of decades. We’re going to make it impossible for them to get loans from the federal government.”
“People who decided to steal from the American taxpayer, stole money that was supposed to go to small businesses and American workers. Well, we think it makes sense that if you were caught stealing from the American taxpayer, you shouldn’t be able to benefit from these loans anymore.”
“If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say you’re cut off. No more. You shouldn’t be applying anymore. No more. And if you do apply, you’re no longer able to get those benefits.”
FRAUD CRACKDOWN: Vice President JD Vance: “We are going to suspend 870K people PERMANENTLY, people who defrauded the government over the last couple of years, the last couple of decades. We're going to make it impossible for them to get loans from the federal government.”… pic.twitter.com/KsbrA4pVUR
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) September 14, 2026
The government has recovered around $250 billion since Vance took control of an anti-fraud task force:
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “With the help of 40 U.S. attorneys’ offices and 20 federal and state investigative agencies, we uncovered approximately $245M in [fraud]. There are a lot of people that have been implicated or charged, but so far we’ve charged over 80 individuals tied to this theft of $245M [in taxpayer money].”
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “With the help of 40 U.S. attorneys' offices and 20 federal and state investigative agencies, we uncovered approximately $245M in [fraud]. There are a lot of people that have been implicated or charged, but so far we've charged over 80 individuals… pic.twitter.com/DCULOwXHqS
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) September 14, 2026
So gross:
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “One case [in Missouri]… Jamie Gray allegedly attempted to steal more than $55M from taxpayers by filing hundreds of these [Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)] loans. He claimed to own dozens of businesses that were in operation prior to the pandemic, but in every instance but one, these businesses didn’t even exist. The only business that he claimed to own that did exist was a business called Fur Lives Matter.”
“Now, it was a business out of Texas, and it does exist, but when law enforcement talked to the people who actually worked at Fur Lives Matter, they had no knowledge of Mr. Gray. And so for that, he’s been charged with three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering by the DOJ.”
The fraud is NEVER ending!
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “One case [in Missouri]… Jamie Gray allegedly attempted to steal more than $55M from taxpayers by filing hundreds of these [Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)] loans. He claimed to own dozens of businesses that were in operation prior to the… pic.twitter.com/Xpu61HEZ42
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) September 14, 2026
More:
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “A grand jury charged two individuals with 47 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy… They submitted and attempted to obtain fraudulent PPP loans on behalf of 100 plus immigrants from Cuba. They falsely claimed that they were self-employed and each had earned approximately $100K in gross income in 2019. So before the pandemic, when they actually were not self-employed, they actually worked at a Northern Iowa meatpacking plant.”
“This effort was an attempt to collect $4.5M in taxpayer money. And PPP actually distributed over $2M as part of this scheme. Now, this couple has fled the country, and they remain at large. But we’re working hard to get them back here.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche: “A grand jury charged two individuals with 47 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy… They submitted and attempted to obtain fraudulent PPP loans on behalf of 100 plus immigrants from Cuba. They falsely claimed that they were… pic.twitter.com/pcPPFRfD5t
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) September 14, 2026
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Comments
Good beginning step in the right direction. Add a few more steps:
1. Expand the prohibition to ALL Federal programs and Federal employment to include entities funded by Federal $, especially any Academic or workplace.
2. Create a permanent bar for any favorable application for immigration application including corporate entities and their officers/directors or future companies hiring them to apply for any form of visa.
3. Create a bar to reentry to the USA for non Citizens.
Combine this with updating the Selective Service System making registration mandatory through full SSA retirement age AND very importantly applying it to females. The functionally disabled and mentally challenged if able to function with or without assistance in public are already required to register so spare us ‘but they’re girls’ arguments. Make Selective Service registration the first barrier to become eligible for any public program. If not registered then you’re ineligible for any Federally funded program. Why am I harping on this? Easy, illegal aliens are also required to register even now. Make failure to register an automatic rejection of every Federal program, including applications for asylum, visa of any type, green card and naturalization. Make the Selective Service data available to ICE as well as part of the data set LEO can view and require folks to update physical address through full SSA retirement age. Not current? Tough cookies you’re ineligible.
Great. I hope there are lots of IRS audits teed up. But what is preventing the individuals behind the fraudulent corps and LLCs from forming new entities to apply for loans?
Editor’s note: “The government has recovered around $250 billion since Vance took control of an anti-fraud task force:” should me 250 million, as the loan program was only 39 billion.
Yes, and that’s the amount of fraud detected and for which people have been charged, not the amount recovered, which is surely much lower.
A foreign-born district judge with an unpronounceable name will block this later today.
Not all foreign-born district judges with unpronounceable names are unfaithful to this country. I heard about one several years ago who was not, but being unable to pronounce his name, I have forgotten it.
maybe you forgot because such a judge is a rarity
That comment is outright racist and un-American.
Are you completely immune to satire, Milhouse?
I dont’ think MTED was satirizing racists. I think s/he was being racist.
You need to lighten up. I’d suggest beginning your quest for fun by viewing Key and Peele episode ‘substitute teacher’.
I agree with Milhouse. At least this time.
Feds need to up prison times. 10 years for each million stolen.
Needs to be 10 years for the fraud with 10 years per mill, zero parole. You fraud $1000 is 10 years. you fraud a mill is 20 years, you fraud 30 mill is 40 years. If you are not a citizen, when you are done, deport.
We need to speed up the clean up…
“We are going to suspend 870K people PERMANENTLY, people who defrauded the government over the last couple of years, the last couple of decades. We’re going to make it impossible for them to get loans from the federal government.”
But wives? kids? nephews? brothers-in-law?
NO PROBLEM!
How come so many appear to have foreign names?
1. The only name mentioned in the article is Jamie Gray.
2. What is a “foreign” name? What makes one name less American than another? Is Trump a foreign name? What about Van Buren, or Roosevelt? Scalia, Alito, Rubio?
Are Biden and fauci on the list?
How about instead of cutting them off from future loans you prosecute them for their fraud that they committed.
Ditto
That’s very impressive if true! But unfortunately it’s not supported by the quote that follows:
Note “uncovered [fraud]”, and “charged [individuals tied to it]”. What word is completely missing and not even hinted at? “Recovered”. I would be astonished if they recovered anything like that.
Wait, 870,000 people stole only 245 million (not billion) dollars? That means that on average each stole less than $300. But then we’re told that only 80 people have been charged with stealing that 245M, so that’s $3M each on average, which seems more reasonable. So what did the other 869,920 people do? Were they the dupes whose names the masterminds used to apply for these “loans”? Is the article telling us that these people have not been charged with any crime, but are being listed as ineligible for any further loans?
How many in prison or deported? I assume zero?
80 people have been charged. You generally don’t deport people you’re planning to try, because they have no reason to come back for trial. If they’re flight risks you can ask the judge to keep them in jail, but the law has a strong presumption in favor of bail, so in many case you won’t get it.
The rest have not been charged, which seems to indicate the government doesn’t think it can convict them.
The fraudster, permanently banned from future US government loans, shrugs and enjoys another adult beverage while reviewing his Cayman Island account with hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars.
Do not bother with banning the fraudsters from future loans, 18 USC 47 section 1001 et seq states
1031 – Major fraud against the United States: Prohibits schemes to defraud the U.S. or obtain money/property by false pretenses in grants, contracts, subsidies, loans, insurance, or other federal assistance. If the value is $1,000,000+, penalties can be up to 10 years in prison and $1 million in fines, with possible fines up to $10 million for multiple counts.
Sentence each fraudster to 10 years in prison. Build a Super Max prison in south Texas or Louisiana.
Only 80 people are being charged. The other 869,200 people are not being charged with anything, presumably because the feds don’t believe they could convict them, but they’re still being banned from any future loans.
No one has mentioned the elephant in the room: the lack of oversight of taxpayer money by federal employees. Unless taxpayer-funded handouts of any kind are monitored with federal employees being held accountable for money spent, nothing will change.
Our federal government is so efficient — only just “discovering” (when it’s convenient) things we’ve all known for years:
That’s just dishonest and discredits him. Even if an investigation confirms that her sham marriage to her brother was indeed for the purpose of immigration fraud (something that has not yet been proven but seems likely), that would not affect her citizenship. It couldn’t. Once someone is validly a US citizen, nothing can change that except voluntary renunciation. If she committed a crime ten years later, that just makes her a criminal, not an alien.
Why isn’t the money being repaid? When is the money stolen through malfeasance of the various states going to be repaid? Where are the prison sentences?
80 people are being charged. If they’re convicted, they’ll presumably have to pay significant fines, if they’ve still got any money.
I don’t think the states have anything to do with this.