“Outsourcing Specialist” and Oil Company Among Latest SBA PPP Recipients
Q1 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
WASHINGTON, D.C. –The latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings show at least 20 more publicly traded companies secured over $64 million in PPP funds. $3.5 million alone went to Sypris Solutions Inc., which markets itself as “outsourcing specialists” and boasts a 215,000 square foot facility in Mexico, which is larger than all threeof their American facilities combined. Another $5.5 million went to Amplify Energy Corp., an oil and gas company, despite Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s declaration, “No bailouts to the oil companies”. Additionally, Intrepid Potash received $10 million despite the fact that their “facilities continue to operate at normal rates.”
These approvals come amid reportsthat “thousands of small-businessowners who believed they were approved for emergency government-backed loans nearly three weeks ago have been left hanging after their lender struggled to deliver funds as expected”. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s claimsthat the program’s problems have been fixed continue to fly in the face of reality.
“Reports keep pouring in of legitimate small businesses given the runaround on aid they were promised while big publicly-traded companies continue to get the VIP treatment, including a ‘specialist’ in shipping U.S. jobs anywhere else. If this is Secretary Mnuchin’s idea of a ‘fixed’ system, main street businesses are in even more trouble than the latest devastating jobs numbersuggest,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Accountable.US.
Sypris Solutions Among The Latest Publicly-Traded PPP Recipients:
Previously controversial PPP grantees include a foreign-owned uranium mining corporationwith ties to the Trump administration, another company that markets its ability to ship U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas, major luxury hotel chains, a fashion model agency, and even the L.A. Lakers.
BACKGROUND: The SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program has been plagued with reports of legitimate small businesses unable to access the help the President claimed would come in “record time”. They have faced a bureaucratic maze often ending in delays and rejection as banks reportedly prioritized those “with the best relationships — not the neediest or most deserving.”A recent surveyof small businesses found only 13% of the 45% who applied for a PPP loan were ever approved. Meanwhile, CEOs of large companies have managed to coast through the process. Well over 300 publicly-traded firms or conflicted companies, some worth more than $100 million, have received over a billion dollars in taxpayer money. It’s no wonder the Trump administration has shied away from transparency in this process.
Accountable.US is a nonpartisan watchdog group that exposes corruption across all levels of government.
