The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced Saturday that thousands of loans worth $312 million were granted to children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The revelation has raised serious concerns about fraud within the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs.
According to DOGE, which is led by Elon Musk, the SBA approved nearly 5,600 loans for pandemic relief between 2020 and 2021 to borrowers whose only listed owner was 11 years old or younger. In addition to the age discrepancy, all 5,593 loans were found to have used an incorrect Social Security number (SSN) that did not match the name on record.
“While it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, that is highly unlikely for these 5,593 loans, as they all also used an SSN with the incorrect name,” DOGE stated in a post on X.
The agency has not yet disclosed how the fraudulent loans were used but pledged to work with the SBA to resolve the issue within the week. The announcement comes alongside another major discovery made by DOGE earlier in the week regarding loans issued to centenarians and beyond.
DOGE revealed that the SBA also granted 3,095 loans worth $333 million during the same period to borrowers over the age of 115, despite these individuals still being marked as alive in the Social Security database. One of the most extreme cases included a 157-year-old recipient who was approved for a $36,000 loan.
The revelations highlight significant weaknesses in the SBA’s loan vetting process during the COVID-19 relief efforts. Fraudulent activities within the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programs have been widely reported, prompting intensified efforts to investigate misuse of taxpayer funds.
DOGE remains committed to exposing fraud and eliminating wasteful government spending. Further investigations into the fraudulent loan approvals are expected as the agency works to uncover how these funds were distributed and who was responsible for the systemic failures.
