In last night's debate, Senator Susan Collins was asked whether she’d support changes to the Paycheck Protection Program after “a lot of large corporations swooped in and took a lot of that money in the first round.” But Collins doubled down and defended the program she wrote that doled out more than $1 billion to publicly traded companies and large hotel chains.

 

You see, the PPP funnelled huge sums of money to large corporations because Senator Collins designed it to work that way. After a lobbying push from the hotel industry led by one of her longtime former aides, Collins wrote a loophole into the program that allowed large hotel chains to nab up to $1 billion in small business relief funds.

 

WATCH:

 

 

Let’s take a look at just a few of the big companies that were able to cash in thanks to Senator Collins’ loophole:

 

  • Omni, which owns & operates about 60 hotels across the US, got up to $116 million in PPP loans.

 

  • Sydell Group, a New York company that operates 10 luxury hotels around the country secured up to $40 million in small business relief funds.

 

  • MCR Hotels, the fourth-largest hotel owner-operator in the United States which invested in and developed 128 hotel properties in 29 states got up $45 million in PPP loans. 

 

  • Crescent Hotels, which operates 29 luxury hotels across the country received up to $38 million.

 

  • BD Hotels, which owns several premier boutique hotels in NYC got up to $35 million in PPP funds.

 

  • KDG Capital, a Tampa-based private equity firm headed by a billionaire investor, received up to $32 million in small business funds.

 

  • Southwest Value Partners, a real estate investment firm with hundreds of millions in assets, secured up to $30 million from the PPP.

 

  • AJ Capital Partners, with upwards of $1.7 billion in assets, got up to $27 million in small business funds.

 

  • Atrium Hospitality, one of the nation's largest hotel operators with 84 hotels in 28 states, took up to $48 million in small business funds.

 

  • TPG Hotels & Resorts, a national hotel operator which has owned, developed and/or managed over 170 hotels in 32 states, received up to $22 million in PPP loans.
     

  • OTO Hospitality Development, a national hospitality firm which has developed over 530 hotels and currently manages over 60 hotel properties, received up to $22 million in PPP loans.
     

  • OYO Hotels, a global hotel company with 43,000 hotels in 80 countries and has taken billions in Silicon Valley investments, got up to $12 million in PPP loans.

 

  • Turnberry, a Florida-based firm that owns several ultra luxury hotels and has developed billions of dollars of real estate projects,got up to $10 million in PPP money.

 

  • Shenzhen New World Group, a Chinese real estate company that owns multiple California hotels, and which was recently caught up in an FBI probe secured up to $10 million in PPP loans.

 

  • Kushner Companies,  the real estate firm of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, which has billions of dollars of real estate assets, received up to $3 million in PPP loans.

 

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