许多有不法记录的公司在PPP小企业援助中获得了数百万美元

去年11月，联邦法官曾下令冻结一家加州公司的资产，因为这家公司被指控“假装与教育部合作，并承诺可以减免学生的贷款债务，但从未兑现”。然而，6个月后，这家有不法记录的公司——Arete金融集团，却从联邦政府的PPP小企业援助计划中得到了“救命稻草”。根据小企业管理局7月披露的数据，FTC指控Arete帮助借款人骗取了至少4300万美元，并获得了高达100万美元的资金，以维持运营。Arete高管Carey Howe在法庭上否认了FTC的指控。他拒绝就该案或PPP贷款发表评论。

Arete并不是唯一一家从PPP计划中受益的有问题的公司。这些有问题的公司，均有被刑事定罪、民事投诉和对业主或企业不法行为调查的记录。根据《华尔街日报》对数百名贷款接受者的调查，已经发现的有：
- 密苏里州的一个电视布道家（televangelist）和德克萨斯的一家多级营销公司，因涉嫌兜售假的冠状病毒治疗方法而被监管机构警告。
- 一所总部位于加州的基督教大学，曾承认与一项3500万美元洗钱活动有关的重罪指控。
- 一家被投资者和州证券监管机构指控为庞氏骗局的私人股权公司。
- 一家旧金山的建筑工程公司，其首席执行官因涉嫌贿赂市府官员而被起诉。

不论是民事上是刑事上，违反法律的行为都不会使得这些公司被自动取消接受PPP援助的资格。SBA只要求贷款申请者证明他们在接受援助时没有从事任何非法活动，并回答一些关于企业主过去的刑事诉讼和定罪的问题。这为那些过去有问题的公司留下了大量的空间来获得援助。2009年至2013年在奥巴马总统领导下担任SBA负责人的卡伦-米尔斯（Karen G. Mills）说：“（政府）很难抓出每一个有问题的公司，这使得一些不该拿到钱的坏家伙分到了一杯羹。”

Last November, a federal judge ordered an asset freeze against a California company that the Federal Trade Commission accused of pretending to be working with the Education Department and promising student-loan debt relief that never materialized. Six months later, the company, Arete Financial Group, got a lifeline from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program. Arete, which the FTC said helped cheat borrowers out of at least $43 million, received as much as $1 million to help keep its operations afloat, according to Small Business Administration figures disclosed earlier in July. Company executive Carey Howe has denied the FTC’s allegations in court. He declined to comment on the case or the PPP loan. That approach undoubtedly sped up aid to small businesses in need of a lifeline. But it also benefited borrowers with troubled pasts, including criminal convictions, civil complaints and investigations of wrongdoing by owners or businesses themselves, according to a Wall Street Journal review of hundreds of loan recipients.

Among the recipients the Journal found:
* A Missouri televangelist and a Texas multilevel marketing company that were each warned by regulators for allegedly touting fake coronavirus treatments.
* A Christian university based in California that pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to a $35 million money-laundering operation.
* A private-equity firm accused by investors and a state securities regulator of running a Ponzi scheme.
* A San Francisco construction engineering firm whose chief executive was indicted for allegedly bribing a city official to obtain a contract it wasn’t qualified to receive.

Run-ins with the law, whether civil or criminal, weren’t an automatic disqualification from the program. The SBA asked loan applicants to certify they weren’t engaged in any illegal activity when they sought the aid and to answer questions about past criminal indictments and convictions by business owners. Key disqualifying factors were whether owners still had stakes in the business and when the alleged crimes and indictments took place. That left plenty of room for companies with troubled pasts or questionable business practices to obtain aid, the Journal’s review suggests. “It is very hard to create the situation that will catch every one of the tricky players,” said Karen G. Mills, who headed the SBA under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. The result is that “some bad actors who should not have gotten the money put their hands in the pot.”  source

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