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Miami, Fl. – A Florida man pleaded guilty for fraudulently obtaining approximately $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and using those funds, in part, to purchase a $318,000 Lamborghini sports car for himself.Authorities seized the Lamborghini and $3.4 million from the bank accounts of David T. Hines, 29, of Miami, at the time of his arrest. Hines pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14.As part of his guilty plea, Hines admitted that he fraudulently sought millions of dollars in PPP loans through applications to an insured financial institution...

This week, the Bank of America revealed that personal data of some of its customers may have been exposed when they uploaded their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application to the bank’s testing platform.

TALLAHASSSEE, Fla. (News Service of Florida) - Bondholders have gone to a state appeals court as they seek to force the Florida Department of Transportation to pay damages because of lost toll revenues on a long-controversial Panhandle bridge. UMB Bank, which represents bondholders, filed a notice last week that it was taking the dispute to the 1st District Court of Appeal after a Leon County circuit judge ruled in November that the department could not be forced to pay damages. As is common, the notice of appeal does not provide detailed legal arguments. But the appeal is the latest move...

Why Churches Should NOT Take The PPP Loan From The Government!

French Laundry, an upscale restaurant in Napa, California, where Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom was caught violating his own coronavirus lockdown rules, got more than $2.4 million in loans from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. The loans were reportedly used to retain the restaurant’s 160 employees

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The SH-288 toll lanes are open and you'll have to pay to use them starting today. Until now, the fees had been waived. Adjustable pricing is based on time of day and volume of traffic. In other words, if the lanes get too congested, toll prices will increase to control traffic. "I think you have to realize that the tolls will be managed based on time of day. If you're in the tolls during peak, it will cost a little more. If you're driving off peak, it will be less. And that's how they're designed," said...

WASHINGTON — The architects of a newly unveiled 10-year, $600 billion climate plan to revitalize Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley region are moving forward with a difficult task of building political willpower in Washington while gaining the trust of rural communities tied to the coal and natural gas industries, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto told a group of sustainable development advocates Tuesday. That coalition-building — a communications strategy to be forged over the next six weeks among academic institutions in Pittsburgh and seven other cities — is a critical step toward executing the plan Mr. Peduto described as both idealistic...

Georgia Democratic Senate hopeful Jon Ossoff said Paycheck Protection Program funds were "raided by larger companies" without mentioning that his wealthy father's company received as much as $1 million through the program. "[Republicans] don't care about small businesses. And as we saw, the PPP funds were raided by larger companies," Ossoff said during a Wednesday-morning campaign event in Decatur. The Democrat said nothing about his father Richard Ossoff's involvement in the program. The elder Ossoff's Atlanta-based company, Strafford Publications, received between $350,000 and $1 million from the PPP on June 9. The company—which collects an estimated $28 million in annual...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says the Senate will vote on roughly $300 billion in "new funding" for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aimed at helping struggling small businesses, as early as next week, according to Politico's Jake Sherman. NEW … MCCONNELL says the Senate will vote on “new funding” for the PPP next week. Dems have suggested in the past they would not accept this. — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 13, 2020 "When the full Senate returns on October 19th, our first order of business will be voting again on targeted relief for American workers, including new...

On Thursday, several congressmen called for a federal investigation into the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) after revelations that it applied for and accepted a large sum from a federal aid program designed to assist small businesses and workers hammered by the coronavirus pandemic and which explicitly excluded political entities. In a letter led by U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL), members of the Florida congressional delegation called for a federal investigation into the FDP’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application and for all documents, including the application itself, to be made public. Implemented by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the PPP...

When the novel coronavirus swept through the travel industry in March, grounding flights and stalling airplane orders, TransDigm didn’t wait for a congressional bailout in order to keep itself solvent. It didn’t have to. On March 23, with a green light from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Fed announced that it would buy as much corporate debt as necessary — in the form of bonds — to reassure companies that they could raise money they needed to ride out the pandemic. Within a few weeks, the bond market had nearly regained the ground it lost, spurring a debt boom. U.S....

NFL receiver Josh Bellamy has been charged and arrested for allegedly participating in a multi-million dollar Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud scheme, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. According to the Justice Department, Bellamy, along with talent management company owner Phillip J. Augustin and several others, applied for PPP loans worth more than a combined $24 million. At least 42 of the requested loans were approved to the tune of some $17.4 million, the department said. Bellamy allegedly received a loan of $1,246,565 for his company Drip Entertainment LLC. He then allegedly used the loan to buy more than $100,000...

Hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars went to Chinese companies from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was designed to help small businesses survive during the pandemic, according to a new report. A review of public PPP loan data by consultancy firm Horizon Advisory found that $192 million to $419 million in loans were given to more than 125 Chinese-owned or -invested companies operating in the United States. Many of the loans were substantial, with at least 32 Chinese-owned firms receiving more than $1 million under the program, totaling between $85 million and $180 million, it found. The recipients...

A Florida man was arrested and charged with fraudulently obtaining $3.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and using those funds, in part, to purchase a sports car for himself. Authorities seized a $318,000 sports car and $3.4 million from bank accounts at the time of arrest. Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Kyle A. Myles of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Investigation’s Atlanta Regional Office, Inspector in Charge...

A new poll released Wednesday by national Democratic-aligned groups shows former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper leading Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner by 11 percentage points — and the Democratic challenger holds a 19-point lead over the incumbent among self-described independent voters. The Public Policy Polling survey, commissioned by Hickenlooper endorsers End Citizens United and Let America Vote, found Hickenlooper with 51% support to Gardner's 40%, with 9% not sure.

At least 18 left-wing groups supported by the billionaire George Soros's liberal donor club applied for federal loans meant to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, receiving up to $20 million in taxpayer cash between them. Groups backed by the Democracy Alliance, a donor network cofounded by Soros, hauled in cash from the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal program established to provide an economic boost to small businesses and their workers during coronavirus shutdowns. Together, the groups received between $8.5 million and $20.7 million. In addition to the Democracy Alliance groups, another liberal donor network that pays the club...

A prominent Delaware law firm founded by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for between $150,000 and $350,000, according to records released Monday by the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration. The Trump campaign told Fox News that the records conflict with recent messaging from the Biden campaign that the PPP program is both ineffective and a vehicle to reward Trump "cronies." “Instead of attacking President Trump as an involuntary reflex, maybe Joe Biden should just say ‘thank you’ once in a while," Trump campaign director of communications Tim Murtaugh told Fox...

Organizations that vigorously oppose government spending took Paycheck Protection Program loans, including some that have criticized the CARES Act, which created the PPP program, according to data released by the Small Business Administration. Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, which says it “educates taxpayers on the true cost of government” and “the realities of costly government programs,” received between $150,000 and $300,000 in loans. In a statement, Americans for Tax Reform claimed it “never opposed” the PPP program and defended the foundation’s decision to take government loans, which it said allowed the foundation to “maintain its employees without laying anyone off”...

LONDON/BOSTON - Last month Zagg Inc, a Utah-based company that makes mobile device accessories, received more than $9.4 million in cash from a U.S. government program that has provided emergency loans to millions of businesses hit by the coronavirus. The money was part of the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) - a linchpin of President Donald Trump’s economic rescue package, meant to save small firms convulsed by the pandemic and help them to keep workers on the payroll. Claimants certified the loans were necessary to support their business and received an average of $115,000 as of May 26, according...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected an effort by a group of lobbyists and political consultants to obtain access to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and its emergency loans for small businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge's decision not to grant a request by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) for a preliminary injunction against the Small Business Administration (SBA), which oversees the lending program. In a three-page decision, the panel rejected the group's argument that excluding lobbyists and political consultants from the loans...