Shake Shack, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, and many otherwise large businesses have each been awarded tens of millions of dollars in SBA Payroll Protection Loans (PPL) because they were able to claim they didn't have more than 500 employees at any one location!  This seems absurd on its face but because these big businesses typically set up a separate LLC's for each new location, usually to limit any lawsuit liability, they were able to "technically" claim they still qualified as a "small business" at many of their locations!  Consequently, the original $349B designated by the CARES Act to provide relief to impacted small businesses has now been wiped out in short order because of this type of loophole abuse!!  

In addition to big businesses taking advantage of loopholes and depleting much needed funds away from the real small businesses in our nation, the SBA also failed to ensure that only small businesses who were truly harmed by the shutdown orders be the ones eligible to apply for the PPL to begin with.  The SBA's failure to establish lending criteria based on actual economic impact, unfortunately opened up flood gates for any type of 'small business' to apply for PPL loans regardless of actual need.  And because these loans would turn into grants in only 8 short weeks, many apathetic and greedy business owners simply couldn't resist applying because they quickly recognized the PPL's would become free money for them! 

Unfortunately, many of the small businesses who applied and were approved for PPL loans were professional service type businesses such as accounting and law firms.  Although they also had to shut down their normal offices like every other non essential business, they simply had their employees working remotely so they could continue servicing and getting paid by their clients.  Custom home builders and other construction related business also took advantage of the PPL not out of economic need but simply because they also wanted to take advantage of a major oversight of the PPL program and grab whatever free money they could. 

Those unharmed small businesses who were approved for PPL loans are vastly different than the vast majority of brick and mortar type businesses such as restaurants, salons, gyms, etc.  Unlike the types of unscrupulous small businesses mentioned above, these traditional brick and mortar type business had no practical way of generating income once they were forced to close their doors.  And these are the types of small businesses who truly got decimated by this pandemic and who so desperately needed these funds.  But unfortunately, most of these businesses received little if any of the SBA funds which are now completely extinguished. 

If you believe that something should be done to prevent unjust enrichment at the expense of those truly in need, please support this petition.  We need to shame our 'political leaders' for their ignorance and to demand that they not only close these loopholes, but also that they must take the misappropriated SBA funds back from those big businesses as well as from those greedy small businesses who never should have been allowed to apply to begin with.  In doing so, the hope is that those vital funds will actually be redistributed to those small businesses most in need.  Thank you!