Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) cheered a guilty plea by an SBA loan officer who had approved over half a million dollars in fraudulent loans for herself and relatives.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced that Rena Barrett, a former SBA loan officer, pled guilty on August 11 to making false statements with applications exceeding $550,000 in fraudulent pandemic-era loans.
Barrett in May 2021 submitted a fraudulent request to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), a pandemic-era loan program, for $170,000. SBA denied her the loan; Barrett then approved the loan herself. The SBA subsequently discovered that she approved loans she and her relatives had submitted. Barrett received about half of the $550,000 in loans that she sought to obtain.
Loeffler, the head of the SBA, said that the guilty plea represents the Trump administration’s efforts to crack own on pandemic-era fraud.
“As I announced on Day One, SBA is committed to clawing back every dollar of Covid fraud that was carried out at the expense of the American people over the last four years,” Loeffler told Breitbart News in a written statement. “The guilty plea out of Atlanta represents our latest win in the continuous effort to hold criminal fraudsters accountable — and prosecute bad actors to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Justice Department managed to get two other guilty pleas related to coronavirus-aid fraud:
In a related case, on April 15, 2025, Sheena Thompson, 49, of Conyers, Ga., pled guilty to a criminal information charging her with making false statements to the SBA. Thompson admitted to trying to obtain more than $150,000 in fraudulent EIDL loans. Barrett is scheduled to be sentenced on November 12, 2025, and Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced on August 28, 2025.
Separately, on August 12, 2025, Detra Lewis, 40, of Atlanta, Ga., pled guilty to making false statements to the SBA. Lewis obtained more than $1.25 million after submitting a false Paycheck Protection Program loan application on behalf of God’s Anointed Youth Ministry. Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on November 14, 2025.
“Abusing authority to fraudulently obtain Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds betrays the trust of small businesses relying on critical relief,” Special Agent-in-Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite of SBA Office of the Inspector General’s Eastern Region said in a statement. “OIG is committed to protecting taxpayer dollars and ensuring accountability for those who exploit vital programs for personal gain.”
Ernst, the chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, said that this case represents why dire reform is needed to rein in fraud.
“This case represents everything wrong with the bloated bureaucracy. A bureaucrat abused their position to secure half-a-million dollars in COVID cash while deserving Iowa small businesses were left out in the cold,” Ernst said in a written statement to Breitbart News.
She continued, “This is exactly why the Senate needs to pass my SBA Fraud Enforcement Extension Act to ensure that every criminal who defrauded taxpayers is held accountable and the stolen funds are recouped.”
Ernst’s SBA Fraud Enforcement Act would extend the statute of limitations to ten years for fraud involving the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RFF) to ensure that criminals are held to account. Congress took similar action in 2022 to extend the statute of limitations around the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the EIDL programs.
While many potential criminals abused the help that came with pandemic-era loan programs, thousands of restaurants across Iowa, Texas, and the rest of the country struggled as RRF funds ran out.
Ernst’s legislation passed out of the Small Business Committee and awaits final passage out of Congress’s upper chamber.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in March found that two to three million referrals could not be investigated because the SBA did not provide enough information.
A Pandemic Response Accountability Committee report in June discovered that $79 billion in coronavirus aid fraud could have been prevented had there been basic vetting before aid was sent to applicants.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study that found lax oversight by the Small Business Administration of hundreds of billions of dollars in coronavirus aid loans and grants, which Ernst said exhibited either “jaw-dropping incompetence or willful negligence.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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