Meet Monty, The Sad Rich Trump Donor Who Only Got $96 Million In 'Small Business' Loans
One of the top priorities of the coronavirus stimulus bill was supposed to be rescuing America's small businesses, which is why the CARES Act included $349 billion for the "Paycheck Protection Plan" to help our great small entrepreneurs get through the crisis caused when America had to go into isolation to stop the spread of the virus. The money ran out in like five minutes because the funds were first-come, first-served, and the biggest banks served up big helpings to some of their biggest customers in the hotel and restaurant industry. You see, lobbyists for the hospitality industry got Congress to add in a little provision allowing huge chains to apply for the "small business" loans, just as long as any one location had fewer than 500 employees, which is how big companies like Ruth's Chris Steak House, with its $441 million in revenue in 2019, got to pretend they were a small business. The company got $20 million in PPP loans, though Ruth's later returned the money after public shaming and vague threats of action by the Treasury Department. Several other big greedhead publicly traded companies that took PPP loans have also said they'd return the money.
But don't go expecting any such repentance from Monty Bennett, a reasonably well-to-do hotel mogul from Texas who runs three great big interconnected corporate entities — Ashford, Inc., Ashford Hospitality Trust, and Braemar Hotels and Resorts — that grabbed $96.1 million in PPP loans, the biggest payout yet to a single business pretending it's several smaller businesses. The companies own 120 hotels, and used the now-familiar strategy to score all those loans. Bennett's companies brought in a combined revenue of $2.2 billion last year, but because of the Rona Recession, the hotels have furloughed or outright laid off 95 percent of their more than 7,000 employees. It's all so upsetting to Bennett that he's had to console himself with some great big bonuses, plus huge dividends from his preferred stock.
Bennett himself is a very generous donor to Donald Trump's campaign and various Republican campaign outfits; he's given $200,000 in the current campaign cycle, and gave even more in 2016. As the Daily Beast details, Bennett has also hired two pricey Trump-adjacent lobbyists to look out for the interests of the hotel industry, because he's really public-spirited that way.
We should also point out right at the outset that it doesn't appear Big Bennett and his holding company, Ashford, Inc., have done anything that's in the least bit illegal. Sleazy as fuck, but it's all thanks to the sleaze play that is the GOP-designed stimulus bill.
Read more: https://www.wonkette.com/meet-monty-the-sad-rich-trump-donor-who-only-got-96-million-in-small-business-loans
= new reply since forum marked as read
