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- Business at properties owned by the Trump Organization and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s family received 25 Paycheck Protection Program loans to the tune of $3.65 million, NBC News reported.
- The Treasury Department rolled out the program intended to keep small businesses afloat amid the pandemic.
- Yet the newly-released data shows many larger companies received the emergency funds, and raises questions about the Trump administration’s handling of the program.
- “The notion that Kushner Companies somehow improperly benefited from CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans is completely untrue and amounts to nothing more than politically motivated nonsense,” Christopher Smith, the company’s general counsel, told Insider.
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Businesses at properties belonging to the Trump Organization and Kushner Companies, owned by the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, benefited from the government’s pandemic relief funds, according to an analysis by NBC News.
The companies received over 25 Paycheck Protection Program loans worth more than $3.65 million, per the report.
The newly-released data from the Small Business Administration comes after NBC News and 10 other news companies sued the agency for refusing to disclose information on more than 5 million loans that were given out. Congress and the Trump administration earlier this year dedicated nearly $700 billion in total to PPP loans, which were intended to help small businesses stay afloat and retain workers amid the economic disruption caused by COVID-19.
However, since the Treasury Department’s rollout in the spring, the program has drawn criticism for potential risks of fraud and abuse, with several instances of large companies applying for and benefiting from the emergency funds.
A Washington Post analysis on Tuesday revealed that more than half of the relief money went to just 5% of recipients. National food chains, such as Uno Pizzeria & Grill, Boston Market, and Cava Mezze Grill, as well as law firms and churches, were among the hundreds of larger businesses that received the maximum amount of $10 million allowed under the program, The Post reported.
Fifteen of the Trump Organization- and Kushner Companies-owned properties reported themselves that they kept either one employee, no employees, or did not report at all how many workers were kept on their payroll, according to NBC News.
Two tenants at Trump Tower in New York received a PPP loan of over $100,000. Still, they only kept three jobs. Similarly, four tenants at 666 5th Avenue, which is helmed by Kushner Companies, got more than $204,000, but only held on to half a dozen jobs, NBC News found.
The Triomphe Restaurant at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City got a $2,164,543 loan, per NBC News. The business didn't retain any workers and subsequently shut down.
Meanwhile, LB City Inc, a company located at the Kushner family's New Jersey-based Bungalow Hotel, retained 155 jobs after acquiring a loan of over $505,500, NBC News reported.
"The notion that Kushner Companies somehow improperly benefited from CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans is completely untrue and amounts to nothing more than politically motivated nonsense," Christopher Smith, the company's general counsel, told Insider in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
He added: "Exactly two Kushner Companies' hotel operations affiliates received PPP loans. Every provision of the PPP program has been comprehensively abided with respect to each of the two loans – and every penny of the funds received from the program was utilized to fund employee payroll and benefits costs to maintain jobs imperiled by the COVID pandemic and associated lockdown measures."
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.