Check the Corruption in the Paycheck Protection Program

The federal government has not disclosed most of the forgivable coronavirus-stimulus loans issued to businesses under the $660 billion federal Paycheck Protection Program.

The Small Business Administration has publicly released lists of the forgivable loans under $150,000 issued in each state but it did not include the names of the recipients.

Loans under $150,000 make up the bulk of the loans issued. According to SBA data through June 30, 2020, loans under $50,000 represented 66.8% of all loans provided, $50,000 to $100,000 represented 13.8% and $100,000-$150,000 represented 6%.

The state-by-state lists the SBA released included only the names of the lenders, including banks and credit unions, that approved the loans as well as the estimated number of jobs the loan will help retain. To date, banks have earned billions in taxpayer-funded fees for issuing the loans as part of PPP, which was setup by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. The SBA hasn’t said whether individual bank branches directly received forgivable PPP loans.

As Just the News previously reported, the federal government isn’t going to conduct a review of most taxpayer-funded forgivable loans issued under the program.

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According to the SBA, the loan is forgivable if “at least 60 percent” of it is used toward payroll. The rest can be used for qualified expenses such as rent and utilities. More here.

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So…let’s take a look at some details of corruption shall we? Then measure your outrage…if you can. It may also be a good time to call your representative and ask them if they took any PPP money of any kind or ask them if they are outraged and what are they gonna do about it.

1. Movie star and Trump hater, Robert De Niro: He got $28 million.
2. A law firm founded by VP Joe Biden Monzack Mersky McLaughlin and Browder, of which Biden no longer has an interest but he maintained close ties. Monzack, who has donated thousands to Biden’s presidential campaign, attended a state dinner at the White House for Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2011. The law firm is also a registered agent for companies tied to Biden.
3. EDI Associates in San Rafael, California, has 52 employees and says it’s in the “full-service restaurant business,” government documents show. The company received between $350,000 and $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money. EDI is partially owned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
4. A progressive political consulting firm that receives large payments from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D., N.Y.) reelection campaign and activist Shaun King’s PAC raked in hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money meant to help small businesses.

   New data show that between $350,000 and $1 million flowed from the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal program created to help small businesses cope with the economic downturn caused by coronavirus, to Middle Seat Consulting, a Washington, D.C.-based digital firm that provides services to far-left Democrats.

5. The campaign of Christine Eady Mann, a Democratic candidate for Congress running in Texas’s 31st district, received $28,600 in May from the PPP, a federal program designed to help small businesses. Mann’s campaign said it used the loan to offset “challenging” fundraising numbers. The campaign repaid the loan in full six weeks later.

There are many more but here is the kicker of it all perhaps….

NP: Entities led by high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, collaborators with state-owned enterprises, and Confucius Institute partners rank among the beneficiaries of the U.S. government’s coronavirus pandemic bailout.

These companies received up to $3.4 million from the U.S. federal government according to Treasury Department’s records released on Monday.

Beyond funding the opposition in the ongoing economic and information warfare between China and the U.S., Chinese companies often coerce American companies to comply with their censorship standards, routinely steal intellectual property, and spearhead massive outsourcing-fueled trade deficits at great cost to American jobs and workers.

Despite this, CCP-linked companies which benefited from the program meant to save American businesses and jobs hurt by the coronavirus include:

China United Transport, $350,000-$1,000,000

As a global transportation and logistics company, China United Transport’s brands itself as a lifeline for the global supply chain.

With weekly shipments to “Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Tianjing, Dalian, Qingdao, and Ningbo,” the company works with several Chinese state-owned ocean and air carriers.

China United lists AirChina, a state-owned enterprise that has received awards from the CCP and boasts it “has always demonstrated its strong brand image as a government-controlled enterprise” in its company profile.

Another partner, COSCO Shipping Lines, features 11 out of its 13 board members listing CCP affiliations in their biographies.

The Chairman and Managing Director Yang Zhijian, for example, serves as the Deputy Secretary of the CCP’s Central Committee and Deputy Managing Director Qian Weizhong serves as Party Secretary.

The CCP also retains a majority stake in partners China Eastern Airline and China Southern Airline.

China Manufacturers Alliance, $350,000-$1,000,000

China Manufacturers Alliance is a facilitator of U.S. dependence on Chinese manufacturing, defining its mission as “uniting major tire manufacturers in China under a unique and powerful cooperative alliance.”

Beyond serving as a boon for the Chinese economy, its parent company is Shanghai Huayi Group. The group is headed by CCP members including its president Lili Gu and Technology Director Dengxi Wu.

Boardmember Liu Genyuan has also advised the CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative, a predatory investment scheme whereby China funnels extensive amounts of money to developing countries who often default on the loans they are provided.

This allows the CCP to seize control of critical infrastructure and facilitate the regime’s quest to end the world’s reliance on the West by bringing countries into their technological and financial orbit.

China Luxury Advisors, $150,000-$350,000

China Luxury Advisors, which strives to “engage the global Chinese consumer,” boasts on its homepage that it’s a Tencent International Premium Agency Partner and Official Alibaba Partner.

Tencent has been identified by the State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation as a “tool of the Chinese government,” noting the company has “no meaningful ability to tell the Chinese Communist Party ‘no’ if officials decide to ask for their assistance.”

It also provides “a foundation of technology-facilitated surveillance and social control” as part of the CCP’s broader crusade “to shape the world consistent with its authoritarian model,” the report added. And CCP collaboration is not far-fetched: its CEO is also known to have direct links to the CCP, currently serving as a Congressional Deputy and Standing Committee member and assisting the CCP with “law enforcement and security issues” and collaborating on “patriotic” video games.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma is a member of the CCP who insisted at a Wall Street Journal event to “be in love with them,” referencing the CCP. Forbes reported the “Chinese Government Has A Huge “Stake” In Alibaba” in 2015 and The New York Times unearthed the company’s “deep political connections of the investment firms, Boyu Capital, Citic Capital Holdings and CDB Capital, the China Development Bank’s private investment arm” in 2014.

The Times also noted Alibaba’s “senior executive ranks included sons or grandsons of the most powerful members of the ruling Communist Party.”

China Luxury Advisors also “works closely with WeChat to register and manage official accounts, develop mini-programs, create content, and place advertising across Tencent’s platforms.” WeChat is a Tencent-owned messaging app with a track record of banning or censoring users who share content counter to the state’s narratives and users are often subject to CCP surveillance and data breaches.

China Institute, $150,000-$350,000

China Institute has a nearly 100-year history of working alongside the CCP. Notable events it touts on its timeline include:

China Institute is instrumental in the Chinese Government’s decision to provide additional funds to Chinese students through its Committee on Wartime Planning for Chinese Students in the United States.

The New York-based advocacy group also hosts a Confucius Institute in partnership with East China Normal University (ECNU), a state-funded University which advertises its adherence to CCP “education and other related policies” in its teachings.

The partnership has allowed Confucius Institutes to metastasize into nine K-12 schools despite being controversial operations replete with “undisclosed ties to Chinese institutions, and conflicted loyalties,” propaganda, and intellectual property theft, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).’

The Confucius Institute’s Beijing Headquarters, colloquially known as “Hanban,” pushes teachers to use “teaching resources” penned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) itself.

Chinatex, $150,000-$350,000

Chinatex is a global cotton trading enterprise focusing on apparel. The company’s introduction page boasts of its state-owned status and subservience to the CCP’S five-year plans:

In July 2016, Chinatex was integrated into Cofco Group as its wholly-owned subsidiary subject to approval by the State Council. According to its 13th Five-Year Plan, Chinatex is now adhering to the overall guiding principle of “professional management and industrialization development”, shouldering the important historical missions of “serving as the major force in maintaining the safety of the national cotton industry, a leader in cotton market regulation, and a practitioner of green, environmentally friendly factories”, vigorously enhancing its vitality, influence and control in the industry, and striving to become a world-class cotton merchant.

The Beijing-based manufacturer is responsible for siphoning American manufacturing and textile jobs.

GateChina, $150,000-$350,000

GateChina’s flagship website is WenxueCity, a Chinese-language news aggregator intended for expatriates. The outlet routinely links to content from CCP run and funded media outlets such as China Network Television.

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The news of the loans going to CCP-linked companies is sure to raise eyebrows, especially given the Trump administration’s recent focus on China in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the crackdown in Hong Kong.

A few more items are here like:

In Los Angeles, luxury residential brokerage the Agency received a $2 to 5 million PPP loan to retain 104 employees, according to the SBA data. Stimulus recipients in L.A. also included a number of Chinese developers, like Greenland Group, which received two $1 to $2 million loans to retain a total of 339 employees; and Shenzhen New World Group, which received two $2 to $5 million loans for a total of 533 employees. Shenzhen New World has been implicated as a major player in a bribery scheme surrounding recently-arrested City Councilmember Jose Huizar.

While U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies are not barred from receiving PPP assistance, lack of guidance in the early days of the program had led to significant confusion among potential borrowers.

Last month, an L.A. marketing agency that had received a PPP loan sued its Canadian landlord Onni Group, alleging the foreign company was seeking “back-door” access to the program by demanding the funds be used to pay rent. Check out more here.