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Washington D.C. – Following reports that trucking giant Yellow Corp. has ceased operations and plans to lay off 30,000 of its workers as it prepares for bankruptcy, Accountable.US – the government watchdog that scrutinized the $700 million bailout the Trump administration approved in 2020 for the White House-connected company — released the following statement: 

“

Three years later, the American taxpayer continues to be the biggest loser from the Trump-era bailouts,” said Liz Zelnick, Director of Accountable.US’ Economic Security & Corporate Power.

“The corrupt agreements with corporate America under the guise of Covid-relief has cost the American people tens of billions of dollars. And all they have gotten in return is sweetheart deals like Yellow Corporation that have unraveled over time on the taxpayer dime.”

BACKGROUND: New York Times, 8/3/2020: Rescue of Troubled Trucking Company With White House Ties Draws Scrutiny

Eager to assist, Mr. Mnuchin assured the senator that “we will look at that specific company and see what we can do and get back to you.”

That company, YRC Worldwide, had lost more than $100 million in 2019 and was being sued by the Justice Department over claims it defrauded the federal government for a seven-year period. But six weeks after the hearing, YRC received a bailout from the [Trump] Treasury Department — a $700 million loan in exchange for a 30 percent stake in the business. The company’s stock price soared 74 percent, though it has come down since.

[…]

YRC has financial backing from Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm with close ties to Trump administration officials. In 2019, a group of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo lent YRC $600 million. In April, President Trump tapped YRC’s chief executive, Darren Hawkins, to serve on a coronavirus economic task force and in January, he nominated the company’s former chief executive, William Zollars, to the United States Postal Service’s board of governors.

[…]

The relationship between Apollo and the White House runs deep. In 2017, Josh Harris, a founder of Apollo, advised the Trump administration on infrastructure policy and discussed a possible White House job with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. That same year, Apollo lent $184 million to Mr. Kushner’s family real estate firm, Kushner Companies, to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper.

Since the pandemic, Apollo has been lobbying the Trump administration to allow broader access to an emergency Federal Reserve lending program.

[…] 

“It sends a chilling message to the American people that the Trump administration has no problem throwing nearly a billion dollars to wealthy, well-connected companies like YRC, while they refuse to provide adequate assistance for the unemployed or protect workers as the pandemic worsens,” said Kyle Herrig, the president of Accountable.US.

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