64 More Publicly Traded Companies Secure SBA PPP Loans as Mom and Pops Left in Dust

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings show 64 additional publicly traded companies secured over $82 million in SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds meant for struggling small businesses.

At least one recipient of the PPP funds is a company based outside the U.S. Canada-based AMERI Holdings Inc. received a $1.7 million forgivable loan after paying its executives $700,000 last year. Arms manufacturer Applied Energetics took home a $132,760 loan after its executives enjoyed a $1,813,306 compensation package last year.

“Small businesses continue to disappear by the thousands every week, leaving more struggling workers across the country with fewer options for feeding their families and keeping a roof overhead. These are the people in most urgent need of help, but the Trump administration would rather let well-connected publicly traded companies cut ahead in line – companies that could hardly call an SBA loan their only option,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Accountable.US. 

These filings were compiled as part of an ongoing tracking project by government watchdog Accountable.US. TrumpBailouts.org documents the billion-dollar corporations and other large companies that have received taxpayer assistance under the CARES Act, and what advantages and assets they had going into the COVID-19 crisis that most small businesses could never access.

AMONG THE LATEST PUBLICLY-TRADED PPP RECIPIENTS: 

*Company has indicated they will return the money.

Previously controversial PPP grantees include a foreign-owned uranium mining corporation with ties to the Trump administration, at least two companies that market their ability to ship U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas, major luxury hotel chains, a fashion model agency, and even the L.A. Lakers.

SMALL BUSINESSES LEFT BEHIND: The Trump SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program has been bungled since day one, offering red tape and rejection to struggling small business owners while rolling out the red carpet for large publicly-traded companies that have access to resources average shops do not. Despite the administration’s claims these issues of access have been fixed, a shocking new academic report estimates over 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed since the pandemic took off in March. Meanwhile, well over 500 publicly-traded firms or conflicted companies – some worth more than $100 million – have walked away with over a billion and a half dollars in taxpayer money. It’s no wonder the Trump administration has shied away from transparency in this process.

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