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Over the past week, one publicly-traded company after another has been shamed into returing multimullion-dollar federal coronvairus stimulus loans.
That includes Irvine-based Kura Sushi, which received a $5.9 million loan despite having tens of millions of cash on hand and access to millions more through a loan from its majority stockholder, a Japanese company.
"This was a difficult decision because our employees are extremely important to us, but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that our finances allow us to weather financial hardship for a longer period than independent restaurant owners," CEO Jimmy Uba said in a statement late Wednesday. "We hope that these funds will be shared equitably among deserving candidates."
WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCEPTING OFFERED CASH?
The culprit may be the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) itself. That's the $349 billion loan fund Congress created as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
It allowed some large, publicly-traded companies to qualify as small businesses.
Now, the Small Business Administration has changed course and is instructing publicly-traded companies to give back the money.
The SBA issued its new guidance today, as the House is voting to add another $310 billion to the program.
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