Congress designed the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses weather fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, but the program’s $521 billion in loans also went to well-heeled and politically connected firms across the economy, including law offices, charities, restaurant chains and wealth managers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Trump administration released the names of borrowers for the first time yesterday, following pressure by Congress and others to disclose who received the taxpayer-funded loans. On the list: Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, the law firm headed by antitrust litigator David Boies; Newsmax Media Inc., the media company run by Trump donor Christopher Ruddy; and an Indianapolis service provider to charities part-owned by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc., a restaurant operator with more than 200 U.S. locations, got a loan. So did prominent real-estate investors and wealth managers. Nonprofits receiving funds included the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., whose alumni include children of former presidents, and the foundation that runs the Guggenheim art museum in New York. The 660,000 companies named accounted for only the largest loans — those worth $150,000 or more. The loans can be forgiven if used largely to retain employees. The loans disclosed yesterday represented about 15 percent of more than 4 million loan participants in the program but about $3 of every $4 distributed.
