The US Treasury Department is cracking down with possible criminal charges against wealthy homeowners with a staff of nannies, housekeepers and chefs who unscrupulously applied for small business bailout loans.

Sources exclusively tell Page Six that some moneyed owners of New York and Hamptons homes with a large staff, who previously registered their household under an independent company or LLC, often for tax reasons, had applied for PPP — government Paycheck Protection Program loans designed for relief to small businesses amid the economic hardship of the COVID-19 outbreak. The loans are designed to support smaller businesses with less than 500 employees, ranging from hair salons to restaurants, to help cover payroll and rent and are forgivable under certain circumstances.

Hedge funds and private equity firms have already been ruled ineligible to receive PPP after a backlash that government aid may go to firms often run by billionaire founders.

A senior Treasury official told Page Six, “Household employers are ineligible from applying for loans through the Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act. The Interim Final Rule published by the Small Business Administration explicitly states, “The (Small Business) Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, determined that household employers are ineligible because they are not businesses,” adding, “Household employers who apply and receive these funds — meant for small businesses suffering demonstrable harm due to the coronavirus outbreak — could face investigation and possible prosecution.”