Luxury Hotel Brand Sotherly Hotels Double Dips in SBA PPP, While Casino Service Provider Joins List of Grantees
Q1 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings show 33 additional publicly traded companies secured over $93 million in SBA Paycheck Protection Program funds meant for struggling small businesses on main street, including at least found stock holdings companies and at least eight businesses with more than 500 employees.
Sotherly Hotels Receives A Second Round Of PPP Loans
A deeper dive reveals Sotherly Hotels Inc. -- a luxury hotel brand whose portfolio boasts a dozen “full-service, primarily upscale and upper-upscale hotels” – received a second round of PPP loans, with its latest loan of nearly $953,000 bringing its total to over $11.6 million.
In addition, The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc., which provides "upscale" services for "hotels, casinos, and other high-end locations across the globe" secured a $18.3 million forgivable loan despite having access to $10.7 million in credit according to their most recent quarterly report. And medical device company Neovasc Inc. received a $530,000 loan despite being headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. Canada.
The latest filings come on the heels of an SBA Inspector General report finding the Trump SBA’s lack of guidance led to many minority and women small businesses -- as many as 90 percent -- being left behind in the first round of the PPP program. There is no indication that the indefensible, systematic discrimination has been ‘fixed’ by the administration.
“As the economy continues to hemorrhage millions of jobs a week, the Trump SBA is staying the course on its failed strategy of protecting profits of huge publicly-traded companies before helping thousands of small businesses on the cusp of collapse,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Accountable.US. “Congress must step in to do what the administration won’t: fix this program so help actually gets to the main street job creators it was promised to."
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 CODID-19 crisis that most small businesses could never access.
Among The Latest Publicly-Traded PPP Recipients:
| LOAN DATE | COMPANY | LOAN AMOUNT | MOST RECENT EMPLOYEE COUNT |
| 5/5/20 | Rekor Systems | $5,005,400.00 | 472 |
| 5/4/20 | Iota Networks, LLC | $763,600 | 40 |
| 4/20/20 | Clearside Biomedical, Inc. | $1,000,000.00 | 33 |
| 5/7/20 | Sotherly Hotels Inc. | $952,700.00 | 13 |
| 5/7/20 | Acme United Corporation | $3,508,047.00 | 441 |
| 5/6/20 | ADOMANI, Inc. | $261,244.00 | 11 |
| 5/4/20 | Marchex Inc. | $3,970,587.00 | 291 |
| 4/14/20 | Manitex International Inc. | $3,700,000.00 | 598 |
| 5/4/20 | Live Ventures Inc. | $4,767,887.00 | 1000 |
| 5/4/20 | ONE Group Hospitality Inc. | $18,300,000.00 | 227 |
| 4/23/20 | Netlist, Inc. | $600,000 | 80 |
| 5/8/20 | GTY Technology Holdings, Inc. | $3,100,000.00 | 108 |
| 5/4/20 | Lazydays Holdings, Inc. | $1,872,705.00 | 935 |
| 5/1/20 | Transportation and Logistics Systems, Inc. | $504,940.00 | 541 |
| 4/10/20 | Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. | $134,127.00 | 6 |
| 4/10/20 | FutureFuel | $8,180,000.00 | 500 |
| 4/14/20 | Koss Corporation | $506,700.00 | 34 |
| 5/5/20 | RF Industries, Ltd. | $2,789,000.00 | 281 |
| 4/17/20 | Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. | $6,230,000.00 | 3,115 |
| 5/1/20 | BioCardia Lifesciences, Inc. | $506,413.00 | 24 |
| 4/30/20 | Charlie's Holdings, Inc. | $866,361.00 | 59 |
| 5/4/20 | Polar Power, Inc. | $1,710,000.00 | 179 |
| 5/6/20 | Quantum Computing, Inc. | $218,371.00 | 12 |
| 4/23/20 | Red Lion Hotels Corp* | $4,200,000.00 | 285 |
| 4/20/20 | South Dakota Soybean Processors LLC | $1,200,000.00 | 121 |
| 5/3/20 | Eyenovia, Inc. | $463,353.00 | 22 |
| 5/6/20 | Inrad Optics, Inc. | $973,000.00 | 58 |
| 4/29/20 | Sachem Capital Corp. | $247,845.00 | 10 |
| 5/4/20 | Ideal Power, Inc. | $91,407.00 | 5 |
| 4/27/20 | Neovasc Inc. | $530,000.00 | 197 |
| 4/30/20 | PDC Energy* | $10,000,000.00 | 540 |
| 4/14/20 | Digi International* | Unspecified | 543 |
| 5/6/20 | Trecora Resources | $6,100,000.00 | 270 |
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.
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 survey of 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.
