Large, Troubled Companies Got Bailout Money in Small-Business Loan Program

Companies with accounting problems or in trouble with the government received millions in federal loans.

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A company in Georgia paid $6.5 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation — and, two weeks later, received a $10 million federally backed loan to help it survive the coronavirus crisis.

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Another company, AutoWeb, disclosed last week that it had paid its chief executive $1.7 million in 2019 — a week after it received $1.4 million from the same loan program.

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And Intellinetics, a software company in Ohio, got $838,700 from the government program — and then agreed, the following week, to spend at least $300,000 to purchase a rival firm.

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The vast economic rescue package that President Trump signed into law last month included $349 billion in low-interest loans for small businesses. The so-called Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to help prevent small companies — generally those with fewer than 500 employees in the United States — from capsizing as the economy sinks into what looks like a severe recession.

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Article URL : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/business/coronavirus-small-business-loans-large-companies.html?campaign_id=168&emc=edit_NN_p_20200427&instance_id=17973&nl=morning-briefing®i_id=73551181§ion=topNews&segment_id=26045&te=1&user_id=38bc984a583dc54b418f0b66dcba2920