The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, uncovered that the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued approximately 5,600 loans totaling $312 million to borrowers listed as 11 years old or younger during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, as reported by Fox News.
DOGE’s investigation revealed potential fraud, noting that many of these loans used Social Security Numbers (SSNs) that did not match the names of the listed borrowers, raising questions about the SBA’s verification processes, according to the same Fox News article.
This discovery follows DOGE’s broader mission, established under President Donald Trump’s administration in January 2025, to root out waste, fraud, and corruption in federal spending
The loans in question were part of Covid-19 relief programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), which disbursed over $1 trillion to support small businesses but faced widespread fraud issues, according to a 2023 GAO report.
Earlier in 2025, DOGE also identified $333 million in loans issued to borrowers over 115 years old, some as old as 157, highlighting ongoing discrepancies in SBA loan disbursements.
Delusions of Adequacy 