New data released by the Small Business Administration, which detailed who benefited from pandemic relief programs, has raised serious questions about the equitability and distribution of loans intended to save struggling small businesses.
According to NBC News, the initial analysis found that properties owned by the Trump Organization and companies owned by the family of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump‘s son-in-law and senior adviser, all profited from the program.
After months of legal wrangling, the SBA released the data to the media Tuesday, which showed every small business that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loan.
The data detailed the most complete accounting to date of the more than $700 billion in forgivable loans Congress and the Trump administration introduced last spring to help small businesses with allowable expenses, including payroll, rent, utilities, and mortgage interest payments.
Among the data, NBC found that more than 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million were given to businesses with addresses at Trump, and Kushner real estate properties, paying rent to them as owners.
The loans to Trump and Kushner properties included a $2,164,543 loan to the Triomphe Restaurant Corp., at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City. Still, the company later reported the money didn’t go to keeping any jobs, in fact- the company actually closed.
Another company, called LB City Inc, which is at Kushner’s Bungalow Hotel in Long Branch, New Jersey, received a loan for $505,552.50 that was used to keep 155 jobs. While four tenants at the Kushner-owned 666 5th Avenue combined received more than $204,000 and used that money to retain a mere six jobs.
There were also some extremely troubling signs of mismanagement revealed in the data. Over 100 loans were made to companies where no business name was listed, or the name listed was “no name available” or showed potential data entry errors, such as names that appeared to be dates or phone numbers.
More than 300 companies appear to have each gotten more than $10 million in loans through their subsidiaries. Businesses were not supposed to receive more than $10 million per entity, except for those in the food, hospitality, or hotels industries.
The PPP programs’ originally stated intent was to help with payroll for small businesses struggling under the effects of coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
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