Publicly traded firms, Ivy League schools get aid loans targeting small businesses

Congress’s Paycheck Protection Program, created to keep small businesses afloat as they weather the pandemic, has distributed $365 million in aid checks to publicly traded companies, according to a new Associated Press report.

Some of the companies that have received aid since the beginning of April are valued at north of $100 million, while others were in dire financial straits even prior to the onset of the pandemic.

Before the program’s fund was emptied last week, lenders approved 1.6 million small business loans, which will be forgiven if the companies are able to keep their employees on payroll for eight weeks.

During Tuesday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed discontent with the filings of some major companies with lots of cash on hand for the small business loans.

“The intent of this money was not for bug public companies that had access to capital,” he said.

Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) tweeted that she would like to see better government oversight applied during the next round of loans, to ensure that taxpayer dollars go to businesses without easy access to additional capital and platinum bank relationships.

Harvard University has come under public fire for accepting close to $9 million in government aid, despite having a $40 billion endowment. During Tuesday's briefing, President Trump called on the Ivy League institution to repay the money it had been allocated as part of an Education Department relief package.

“I want Harvard to pay that money back, OK?," Trump said. "They have to pay it back, I don’t like it. This is meant for workers, this isn’t meant for one of the richest institutions."

Harvard had indicated that they will not be returning the money, and instead will commit 100% of the emergency funds to providing direct assistance to “students facing urgent financial needs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Harvard is not the only wealthy institution of higher education getting assistance from the Department of Education. Columbia and Cornell universities will each receive $12.8 million. Yale will receive $7 million, and $2.5 million has been reserved for Princeton.

Though they’ve now said they will be returning the loan, $1.6 billion company Shake Shack initially received the maximum aid amount of $10 million.

Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, a cruise ship and travel company, received $6.6 million from the Small Business Administration. In March, the company reported having $137 million in cash on hand.

California data storage company Quantum Corp. paid a $1 million fine in late 2019 after being accused of overstating revenues. The company, which employs 800 workers, received $10 million.

Wave Life Science USA Inc., a biotech company that has no products on the market and may never have one ready for commercialization, received $7.2 million.

In the last three fiscal years, the pharmaceutical company, whose parent company is based in Singapore, disclosed net losses of $102 million, $147 million, and $194 million.

Small business owners are feeling less and less hopeful that their documents, submitted in early April, will be processed in time to meaningfully help their struggling businesses.

Many are frustrated that publicly listed companies, foreign owned companies, billion dollar companies, companies with questionable financial histories, and some of the richest institutions in the world have been prioritized ahead of the people who need aid most seriously and urgently.