SBA enters ‘new phase’ with Palantir on anti-fraud efforts
The Small Business Administration is ramping up its relationship with Palantir, announcing a “new phase” in its anti-fraud work with the data analytics and software giant.
In a press release Tuesday, the SBA said it’s formalizing and expanding its work with Palantir after signing a $300,000 contract in January for a fraud prevention pilot and bootcamp.
That deal had a projected end date of April 4, but the agency said in the release that the “collaboration” with Palantir will now continue through “ongoing efforts to identify, investigate, and help prosecute fraud in pandemic-era small business relief programs.”
The agency pointed specifically to its Paycheck Protection Program and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program as areas previously beset by fraud.
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement that the Palantir partnership “will strengthen our ability to expose fraudulent actors, support criminal enforcement actions, and recover stolen funds with advanced technology and artificial intelligence.”
“No amount of fraud is acceptable — whether it is $10,000 or $10 million — which is why the SBA is deploying these tools to accelerate our work to surface wrongdoing and ensure those who cheated taxpayer-funded programs face consequences,” she added.
The SBA press release touted the agency’s state-level efforts to combat fraud, claiming suspensions of more than 150,000 pandemic borrowers in California, Ohio, Minnesota, Maine and Wisconsin. According to the agency, those borrowers were linked to over $10 billion in suspected fraud.
The agency also blasted the Biden administration for what Loeffler called “staggering levels of abuse” in pandemic relief programs while highlighting its “largest fraud enforcement action to date” — a referral to the Treasury Department of more than 560,000 borrowers suspected of fraud.
Trump administration officials have railed repeatedly against fraud in federal programs, including with the launch of a White House task force. It has punished states where alleged fraud occurred by freezing funds and cutting off benefits.
Many instances of fraud that Trump officials have trumpeted, however, were identified during the previous administration, with former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice opening investigations involving Medicaid, SBA, Department of Agriculture and other programs.
Palantir, meanwhile, has seen its fortunes rise considerably during the second Trump administration, fueled in part by a boom in federal business. The company has inked deals with the USDA, the Army, the Education Department, the Transportation Department and others.
At the SBA, Palantir’s software will leverage advanced technology and artificial intelligence to “surface data and leads, support criminal enforcement, and assist in the recovery of funds for American taxpayers,” per the press release.
“These tools will help the agency analyze large datasets, flag anomalies, identify potential indicators of coordinated schemes, accelerate investigative leads, and identify funds obtained through false or fraudulent applications for further action,” the agency added.
