The billionaires and country clubs that received small business loans from the governmentPublished Tue, Jul 7 20209:20 AM EDT Updated Tue, Jul 7 20202:32 PM EDT
Billionaires, country clubs, private jet companies and Kanye West all received millions in government funding under the Paycheck Protection Program, according to filings.
The PPP loans and grants were designed to help small businesses hurt by the pandemic to retain or rehire employees.
West’s Yeezy fashion brand received $2 million to $5 million.
Yet according to a list of individuals and companies that received loans or grants of more than $150,000, recipients included large companies and billionaires that had access to other sources of capital and have recovered quickly from the pandemic.
Soho House, the exclusive membership club controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle, received loans totaling $9 million to $23 million by applying for seven loans through its New York, Miami Beach, Chicago and West Hollywood locations. Last month, Soho House raised $100 million from private investors, including Burkle, that gave the company a valuation of $2 billion — equal to its pre-pandemic valuation.
All together, more than 400 country clubs and golf resorts received PPP funding.
Billionaire developer Joe Farrell, famed for building and renting megamansions in the Hamptons, received a PPP loan of up to $1 million. Farrell made headlines in May when he rented a megahome called “The Sandcastle” for nearly $2 million for the summer.
The Greenbrier Hotel, which operates the famed luxury resort in West Virginia and is owned by billionaire West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, received $5 million to $10 million. The Greenbrier Sporting Club, part of the residential development next to the hotel, also received $1 million to $2 million.
Gores Vitac Holdings, part of the company controlled by by tech billionaire Alec Gores, is listed as having received $5 million to $10 million.
The most famous billionaire to receive PPP funds is Kanye West. West’s Yeezy fashion brand received $2 million to $5 million. West has said his brand is worth $3 billion and recently announced a collaboration with Gap
that could be worth $100 million or more depending on the company’s performance.
Private jet companies, which have rebounded quickly and received hundreds of millions of dollars under the aviation program of the CARES Act, also got millions in PPP funds. Clay Lacy Aviation, which received $27 million in CARES Act funding and prides itself on its celebrity and VIP client base, also received $5 million to $10 million in PPP funds.
Jet Linx Aviation, which received $20 million from the aviation program, received an additional $5 million to $10 million in PPP funds, according to the list.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/07/the-billionaires-and-country-clubs-that-received-ppp-loans.html
Another new bombshell report by the Associated Press shows once again that churches are stealing from the American taxpayer:
“As the pandemic began to unfold, AP reveals today, “scores of Catholic dioceses across the U.S. received aid through the Paycheck Protection Program while sitting on well over $10 billion in cash, short-term investments or other available funds, an Associated Press investigation has found. And despite the broad economic downturn, these assets have grown in many dioceses.”
AP reports that “[t]he 112 dioceses that shared their financial statements collected at least $1.5 billion in taxpayer-backed aid. A majority of these dioceses reported enough money on hand to cover at least six months of operating expenses, even without any new income.”
The PPP is not even a year old and already the grift and abuse by church has been enormous. And unfortunately we’ll see more: The Paycheck Protection Program was reopened on January 11, 2021.
Remember all the state/church problems with PPP that FFRF has fought and brought to light in the past year?
First, the Small Business Administration violated the Constitution and trampled long standing agency rules to extend these loans to churches.
https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/37530-ffrf-objects-to-forced-taxpayer-bailout-of-religion
This was clearly unconstitutional, as FFRF explained to the SBA at the time.
https://ffrf.org/images/CommentonSBAInterimFinalRules.pdf
The SBA is currently—right now, even under the new administration—working to make these rules permanent. Please oppose them here.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/14/2020-26446/regulatory-reform-initiative-streamlining-and-modernizing-the-7a-microloan-and-504-loan-programs-to
https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/38444-new-ap-report-details-ongoing-abuse-of-ppp-funds-by-catholic-church
Another new bombshell report by the Associated Press shows once again that churches are stealing from the American taxpayer:PII
Second, this rule change was not authorized by the COVID relief act that created PPP.
The CARES Act extended eligibility for loans from the SBA to nonprofits, which was new.
https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hr748/BILLS-116hr748enr.pdf#page=8
But the law did not give the SBA the power to extend this eligibility to churches, nor could it—the Constitution prohibits government funding of religion.
The CARES Act only mentions religion once, to prevent universities from using taxpayer funds for “capital outlays associated with facilities related to athletics, sectarian instruction, or religious worship.”
However, the SBA ignored that language, and the centuries-old bar on taxpayer-funded religious worship, and issued rules and guidance declaring that your taxpayer funds “can be used to pay the salaries of ministers and other staff engaged in the religious mission of institutions.”
To do this, SBA had to suspend numerous rules that, correctly, prevented taxpayer funds from flowing to churches.
SBA was spurred to do this because a few congressmen, like Christian Nationalist Josh Hawley who has since incited an insurrection, declared after the fact and against the language of the law and the Constitution, that churches were beneficiaries.
Again, FFRF was there to explain why this was wrong.
https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/38444-new-ap-report-details-ongoing-abuse-of-ppp-funds-by-catholic-church
Third, the Trump administration was using the program to reward his closest political allies. FFRF broke the story of secretive White House calls between SBA officials and religious leaders that supported Trump politically. The preachers were encouraged to apply for the PPP funds and promised help. Trump-allied faith leaders were assured by the federal government that even a discriminatory fly-by-night “church” that provides absolutely no secular social services, and of which the owner is the sole employee, could have its wages covered by taxpayers during the PPP time period. On one call, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, a member of Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Council, explained that the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, which took in $350,000–$1 million, “has literally been kept solvent . . . by the Paycheck Protection Plan (sic)” and explained that in 43 years of leading two faith-based ministries, he has “never asked for, nor received, one cent from the federal government” expressing his surprise that taxpayer funds could now flow to his ministry.
Finally, there’s the well-documented but still emerging abuse, including by FFRF Director of Strategic Response Andrew Seidel, who wrote, “American churches took in as much as $10 billion in taxpayer funds through PPP loans.
More than 400 evangelical churches received loans of at least $1 million. The Catholic Church might have taken in as much as $3.5 billion.”
He explained that Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church took in nearly $5 million in taxpayer funds.
Other mega-churches purchased private jets, returning the taxpayer money when they were caught.
And this is only the tip of the corruption as the latest AP report shows.
https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/38444-new-ap-report-details-ongoing-abuse-of-ppp-funds-by-catholic-church
Release of PPP loan recipients' data reveals troubling patterns
Tenants paying rent at Trump Organization and Kushner Companies properties are beneficiaries of PPP loans.
Dec. 2, 2020, 12:38 AM EST By Ben Popken and Andrew W. Lehren
Sweeping data released by the Small Business Administration on who benefited from pandemic relief programs raises questions about the equitability and distribution of loans intended for small businesses, an initial analysis by NBC News shows.
The analysis found that tenants paying rent at properties owned by the Trump Organization as well as the Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, benefited financially from the program. These tenants received loans, which they then were required to put toward rent for the loans to be forgiven. The data did not show that the Trump Organization received PPP loans for its properties.
After months of litigation, the SBA released the dataset Tuesday night on every small business that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loan.
The data reveals the most complete accounting to date of the more than $700 billion in forgivable loans Congress and the Trump administration introduced in the spring for allowable expenses, including payroll, rent, utilities and mortgage interest payments.
The analysis by NBC News, one of 11 newsrooms that sued for the release of data, also shows:
Over 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 those owners. Fifteen of the businesses self-reported that they only kept one job, zero jobs or did not report a number at all.
The loans to businesses located at 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. The company reported the money didn’t go to keeping any jobs. It later closed.
A company called LB City Inc, which is located at Kushner’s Bungalow Hotel in Long Branch, New Jersey, received a loan for $505,552.50 that it used to keep 155 jobs.
Two tenants at 725 5th Avenue, Trump Tower, received more than $100,000 and kept only three jobs.
Four tenants at the Kushner-owned 666 5th Avenue combined received more than $204,000, and retained only six jobs.
Christopher W Smith, General Counsel with Kushner Companies, denied that the company had benefited improperly in any way from the program.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/release-ppp-loan-recipients-data-reveals-troubling-patterns-n1249629
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