Corona Corruption, Part 2

The PPP website may keep crashing, but Crooked Donald is keeping the big bucks flowing

Corona Corruption, Part 2

Another 2,400 Americans died yesterday, a death toll that matches the entire US losses in the Afghanistan War. But Jared says “it’s a great success story” and Trump keeps insisting he’s doing a “great job.”

Jared says he’s encouraged because the “metrics” all look good. But seeing as America added nearly 30,000 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, he must be looking beyond what he calls the “medical aspect.”

Here are some of the numbers he and his Father-in-Law are most excited about:

$96.1 million in PPP cash for a billionaire Trump donor

Somehow, the money meant to keep “mom and pop” businesses alive keeps getting shoveled toward Trump’s friends and donors. As GQ reported:

Dallas billionaire Monty Bennett had a special hand in draining the first round of PPP money—he's the single biggest recipient of PPP funds, with $96.1 million going to his businesses. Bennett is the the head of what The Dallas Morning News calls a “hotel empire.” He's the CEO of Ashford Inc., a company that serves as the “external advisor” to Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, two companies where Bennett also serves as chairman of the board.

As Judd Legum reported in his Popular Information newsletter, Bennett’s companies made $2.2 billion in revenue in 2019.

$55 million FEMA dollars went to a bankrupt company with zero employees

As the Washington Post first reported on April 15, “in a scramble to obtain N95 respirator masks… the government has paid… more than $5 per unit, nearly eight times what it would have spent in January and February when U.S. intelligence agencies warned of a looming global pandemic.”

As Business Insider wrote, one of those companies, Panthera LLC, “filed for bankruptcy protection last fall… (has) had no employees since May 2018… (and) has no record of producing medical supplies or equipment.” Panthera received $55 million to produce masks at $5.50 per mask, “decidedly more than what the government pays companies with an established background in producing medical supplies such as 3M, which charges about $0.63 per mask.”

On Twitter, Jill Wine-Banks noted: “If true, this is why 45 removed the selected IG for the stimulus payments.”

The White House steered $96 million to Air Boss of America in a no-bid deal

As Propublica reported earlier this month:

The Trump administration has rushed through more than $760 million in contracts outside the usual bidding process during its haphazard coronavirus response. It’s highly unusual for the White House to step into FEMA’s supply bidding process.

The $96 million awarded to Air Boss of America for “100,000 powered respirators and filters for medical workers treating patients in New York” was the largest of its kind. The company had foreshadowed “a big business opportunity in the U.S.” on an earnings call in March. Air Boss’s stock price doubled on the news.

As Propublica pointed out:

The Trump White House’s involvement in purchasing supplies is highly unusual, because the task of figuring out the best suppliers is typically left to procurement professionals and acquisition lawyers who know the markets best…. In a press release announcing the AirBoss deal, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro praised the company… Ethics experts have criticized the White House’s effort.

The Air Boss order is not due to be delivered until July 31st.

Meanwhile, GOP donors scored $569 million to “Build the Wall”

As The Daily Beast report on April 17:

The Army Corps of Engineers announced it awarded BFBC, an affiliate of Barnard Construction, $569 million in contract modifications for building “17.17 miles” of the wall in two California locations, El Centro and San Diego. That works out to over $33 million per mile—steeply above the $20 million-per-mile average that the Trump administration is already doling out for the wall. Construction is supposed to be completed by the end of June 2021.

And it’s not the first time BFBC has been overpaid to build Trump’s vanity wall:

BFBC, a reliable contributor to Republican politicians, has gotten over $1 billion in taxpayer money in less than a year to build a mere 37 miles worth of wall. Scott Amey, the general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, urged federal watchdogs to investigate the new BFBC contract.

“$1 billion for 37 miles of wall is a travesty and it must be investigated and audited immediately,” Amey said.

Of course, while billions of taxpayer dollars are flying out the door with zero oversight, hundreds of thousands of small businesses crippled by the Trump Crash are still facing significant problems just getting their applications in. With Trump, nothing ever works as advertised. But somehow the corruption keeps humming along like a fine-tuned machine.

Click here to read the first installment of “Corona Corruption.”


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