Millions in PPP Floods Wall Street, Not Main Street

Last week, more Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) recipients were revealed, including Canadian mining corporations and publicly traded companies who used their PPP money on stock buybacks and dividends to their shareholders. Meanwhile, PPP fraud cases continue to come to light across the country while small businesses continue to face permanent closures with no new relief bill in sight.


BAILOUT RECIPIENTS INCLUDE CANADIAN MINING CORPORATIONS AND PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANIES 

Washington Post | Publicly traded firms paid dividends, bought their own stock after receiving PPP loans to pay employees 

“Some publicly traded companies that received taxpayer-backed small business loans to pay their employees during the early weeks of the pandemic paid out millions to Wall Street investors in dividends and share buybacks, publicly available financial disclosures reviewed by The Washington Post show.”  

Accountable.US | Canadian Mining Corporations Land Millions in U.S. Taxpayer Bailout Monies 

@SignalBoostShow | “@Accountable_US president @KyleHerrig joined @ZerlinaMaxwell & @jess_mc to provide listeners with a quick PPP refresher amid calls for additional relief” [Listen here

Accountable.US | REPORT: Publicly Traded Companies Used PPP Money to Enrich Their Shareholders 


PPP FRAUD ROUNDUP  

Accountable.US | Watchdog Launches Bailout Fraud Tracking Map 

This week, Accountable.US launched a Bailout Fraud Map that will track reports of abuse and waste in the Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

The Texan | Houston Woman Created Fake Beauty Company, Stole $1.9 Million in Small Business Loans, Feds Say


EVEN SMALL BUSINESSES THAT DID RECEIVE PPP LOANS ARE RUNNING OUT OF MONEY AS NEW RELIEF BILL TALKS STALL  

Axios | The price of Washington’s stimulus failure 

“Both Democrats and Republicans agree there’s urgent need for a second round of stimulus loans for small businesses, which employ nearly half of all Americans. Yet there’s been no movement to reauthorize the Paycheck Protection Program as a standalone, nor to pass a separate proposal aimed at restaurants and bars… At this point, however, almost all of those PPP loans have been exhausted, even though many businesses remain closed.”  

Accountable.US | New GAO Report: Trouble Ahead for PPP Recipients 

Forbes | Report: Struggling Black-Owned Businesses Need More Government Grants 

NBC Richmond | ‘You may be looking at close to 100 restaurants’ closing in Richmond, tourism group says  

Bloomberg Tax | When a Paycheck Protection Effort Meant to Save Jobs Doesn’t 

“When a government initiative is called the ‘Paycheck Protection Program,’ the assumption is it will keep workers on the job. But that hasn’t necessarily been the case… Congress designed these programs to keep workers employed and yet we still don’t know the identities of the majority of PPP loan recipients nor do we have any verification of jobs retained by loan recipients.”  

NBC Connecticut | PPP Has Been Spent, Now What?