The Washington Post’s database contains the names of public companies that have reported receiving loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as of May 6, 2020. The company names, loan amounts and other details were reported in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Post has been investigating problems in the small-business loan program – part of the federal coronavirus relief law known as the Cares Act – since it began April 3. The Small Business Association’s rollout of the program was mired in chaos, including web portals that crashed, a chaotic regulatory process and a frustrating lack of cooperation from big banks.
The $349 billion ran out in two weeks and about 80 percent of small businesses that applied did not receive loans before that point.
Meanwhile, a drumbeat of news stories reported that large public companies including national restaurant chains had received loans: the Ruth’s Chris steakhouse chain, Shake Shack restaurants and the Potbelly chain of sandwich shops received $10 million or more in loans.
The revelations sparked a public backlash, since the companies and other public companies that received loans were worth tens of millions or more and had access to capital that many independent small businesses do not.
On April 23, the SBA issued new guidance suggesting that public companies return the SBA loans they had received by May 7. Though some companies said they planned to return the funds, others said they would not.
Though the SBA regularly makes data public on its loan recipients, the agency has withheld information from the public about companies receiving PPP loans.
The Post’s data on PPP loans to public companies will be updated regularly. It currently does not include names of private companies that have received loans or names of public companies that have not disclosed to the SEC that they received loans.
To provide information about the PPP loan program to The Post, including information about companies receiving funds, please email details to [email protected].
Credits:
Research and Reporting: Aaron Gregg, Renae Merle, Jeanne Whalen, Jonathan O’Connell and Steven Rich
Editing: Ziva Branstetter, Mark Seibel
[This data is published under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license]