SBA Suspends More Than 27,000 Ohio Loan Borrowers Due to Suspected Fraud

Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration administrator, speaks at a news conference focusing on fraud, in Columbus, Ohio, on June 4, 2026. Janice Hisle/The Epoch TimesThe Small Business Administration (SBA) has suspended 27,486 borrowers in Ohio linked to approximately $1.1 billion in COVID-19 financial assistance fraud, the agency said in a June 4 statement.The borrowers are alleged to have defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) initiatives. PPP was a COVID-era program that sought to help businesses retain their workforce during the crisis, while EIDL provided loans and advances to help businesses recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic. While the PPP initiative ended in May 2021, the SBA stopped accepting applications for EIDL as of January 2022.