A new story in the New York Post reveals that three days before obtaining a $1 million loan through the Trump SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Welkin Health, a software company backed by Josh Kushner’s venture capital firm, fired a third of its staff. While Congress intended for PPP funds to be used to keep small business employees on payroll through difficult economic times amid the COVID-19 crisis, many wealthy, well-connected companies have defrauded, misused, or otherwise abused the program’s limited funds. Meanwhile, many other businesses — particularly those in communities of color — were boxed out of the program altogether.
Q2 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Josh Kushner-Connected Welkin Health Misused The PPP
“Another day, company that misused the Paycheck Protection Program to serve its own interests,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. “With little oversight and accountability to speak of, the fraud and abuse we see in the PPP comes as no surprise. Congress must ensure that the next round of small business relief has enforceable transparency measures to make sure taxpayer dollars are actually being used to help small businesses and their workers.”
Reporting last month in the Post found that that at least five portfolio companies of Thrive Capital grabbed up a minimum of $2.8 million from Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program.
While Thrive Capital was originally founded by and is still managed by Josh Kushner, it also has ties to his brother Jared. He was a major player in the firm before landing his White House role. And Jared has also repeatedly invested in Cadre, a questionable real-estate firm Jared founded that is intimately familiar with offshore tax havens. In July, it was reported that Jared conveniently changed his mind on divesting from Cadre.
NEW YORK POST: Kushner-linked startup axed staff three days before snagging PPP loan By Noah Manskar, September 13, 2020
The post Kushner-connected company sacked staff, got $1M PPP loan appeared first on ValueWalk.
