Publicly traded firms paid dividends, bought their own stock with PPP loans to pay employees

[Rogue Valley]

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

9/24/20
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. The findings reinforce long-standing concerns that the Paycheck Protection Program, an emergency stimulus fund offering low-interest, forgivable loans to businesses with fewer than 500 employees, was accessed by financially healthy companies that could have gone without a bailout. Under the Small Business Administration rules, a PPP loan could be used only to meet payroll and pay mortgage interest, leases or utility bills. Still, some advocacy groups believe companies that had enough cash on hand to pay millions in dividends and stock purchases were unlikely to qualify for the PPP program, which was designed to assist troubled companies in keeping employees on the payroll during weeks when they were unable to do business because of pandemic-related lockdowns.

“The Trump administration wrote the PPP rules and sent billions of dollars to the well-resourced and well-connected rather than actual small businesses struggling during this public health and economic crisis,” said Kyle Herrig, president of an advocacy group called Accountable.US. “The fact that there was little transparency or accountability under this program amounted to an invitation for large companies to misuse tax dollars to their benefit.” An SBA spokesman did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The Treasury Department declined to comment on the record for this story.

Yet another example of Trump administration corruption.

Once again further enriching wealthy corporations with our taxpayer dollars.

 

[tres borrachos]

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

Yet another example of Trump administration corruption.

Once again further enriching wealthy corporations with our taxpayer dollars.

If true, they should all pay hefty fines.