Kelly Loeffler, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), announced she halted $5.5 million in federal payments to Minnesota on Dec. 23, citing the state’s fraud scandals, estimated to total $9 billion, and specific concerns that her agency uncovered.
SBA investigators found at least $2.5 million in pandemic-relief loans “granted to individuals indicted as part of the Somali fraud scheme,” she wrote in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. In addition, the agency found Minnesota doled out 13,600 pandemic-relief loans—worth $430 million—that are “suspected as fraudulent.” Prosecutors have stated that most of the defendants indicted in three major scandals in the state are of Somali origin….