The Small Business Administration has referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent pandemic-era loans totaling more than $22.2 billion to the Treasury Department for collection, according to the agency.

“From Day One, the Trump SBA has worked tirelessly to crack down on billions in pandemic-era fraud that the Biden Administration forgave or ignored,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement.

The loans, largely tied to the Paycheck Protection Program and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, had been flagged for suspected fraud during the Biden administration but were never sent to Treasury for collection, the SBA said.

The agency accused the Biden administration of shielding suspected fraudsters by failing to pursue repayment, despite federal law requiring delinquent debts to be referred to Treasury.

“After extensive review, and with the strong support of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, we are taking our most decisive action yet to end a Biden-era scheme that protected over 560,000 borrowers tied to more than $22 billion in suspected pandemic-era fraud,” Loeffler said.

The SBA said none of the more than 560,000 borrowers had been compelled to repay the $22.2 billion owed, and fewer than 1,000 were under investigation by the SBA’s Office of Inspector General.

“For years, the Biden Administration shielded these borrowers from debt collectors as part of a de facto amnesty scheme — but today, they will finally face accountability,” Loeffler continued.

“The SBA is deeply grateful to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for its partnership in this historic action, and we look forward to continued collaboration as we work to claw back stolen taxpayer dollars and hold fraudsters accountable.”

In addition to referring the loans for collection, the SBA has referred the borrowers to the Justice Department.

“Over $22 billion. We mean business,” a senior White House official said. “If you commit fraud, we will find you.”

The effort is being led by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, headed by Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson.

“Finding and going after these billions of dollars was only possible with the task force’s whole-of-government effort,” a spokesperson for Vance said.

“The vice president is proud of the several milestones the task force has already achieved, and it’s only the beginning.”

The referrals are part of a Trump administration crackdown on pandemic-era fraud. Working with the task force, the SBA is identifying a wide range of potentially fraudulent loans.

“Research findings show over 1,000,000 suspicious Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans,” Vance wrote in a memo on the task force’s first day.

At least $200 billion of the $1.2 trillion in pandemic-era relief loans approved by the SBA between 2020 and 2021 was fraudulent, according to the agency’s Office of Inspector General.

The SBA has also launched new anti-fraud measures, including citizenship and birth-date verification and state-by-state investigations, according to an early April memo.