New PPP Loan Data Reveals Most Of The $525 Billion Given Out Went To Larger Businesses–And A Few With Trump, Kushner Ties

Topline

After months of litigation, the Small Business Administration finally revealed the name of every business that received a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program on Tuesday night, and early analysis reveals that a majority of the forgivable funds–intended for smaller businesses needing emergency relief for payroll, rent or mortgage expenses–actually went to bigger businesses, including some with ties to President Donald Trump and his administration.

Key Facts

Crucial Quote 

“Many months and broken promises later, the court-ordered release of this crucial data while the Trump administration is one foot out the door is a shameful dereliction of duty and flagrant mismanagement of a program that millions of workers and small businesses needed to get through this pandemic,” Kyle Herrig, the president of government watchdog Accountable.US, said in a statement to NBC News. “Only now–after its hand has been forced, hundreds of thousands of small businesses have gone under, and millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted–has this administration pulled back the curtains to reveal the malpractice going on behind the scenes.”

Surprising Fact

More than 100 loans were made to businesses that listed no name or “showed potential data entry errors, such as names that appeared to be dates or phone numbers,” reported NBC News.

Key Background

In March, the $2.2 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act established the PPP with $349 billion in forgivable loans meant to go to small businesses and nonprofits badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic. That first round of funding was exhausted in just 14 days, so the program received an additional $321 billion from Congress in April. Reports soon surfaced that many small businesses claimed they struggled to get loans while dozens of billionaire-owned companies and private equity firms managed to secure funding. After heightened pressure, the SBA released a list of entities that received PPP loans of at least $150,000 in July, but it declined to disclose exact loan amounts or recipients of loans under $150,000, citing privacy concerns by small business owners. Criticism only mounted: In October the SBA’s inspector general said there were “strong indicators of widespread potential abuse and fraud in the PPP,” including tens of thousands of businesses that received loans despite being ineligible for them, and in November, a federal judge ordered the SBA to disclose all the names, addresses and exact loan amounts issued through the PPP after a Freedom of Information Act from the aforementioned 11 news organizations. 

Tangent

The Treasury Department and Small Business Administration encouraged big banks to provide PPP loans to their “wealthy existing clients at the expense of truly struggling small businesses in underserved communities,” a House subcommittee said in October after a months-long investigation into the disbursement of PPP funds.

Further Reading

Release of PPP loan recipients data reveals troubling patterns (NBC News)

More than half of emergency small-business funds went to larger businesses, new data shows (Washington Post)

Here’s What Was Inside The Government’s Massive PPP Data Dump (Forbes)

Big Banks Prioritized Billions In PPP Funds For Wealthy Clients At The Expense Of Struggling Small Businesses, House Report Finds (Forbes)

Disclosure: Forbes Media LLC confirmed on July 6, 2020 that it received a Paycheck Protection Program loan of $5 million to $10 million on April 15.