Ruth’s Chris became the poster child for how not to get a loan quietly from the SBA. They had 5,740 employees (when Congress said you could only have 500 and qualify) and they got a loan for $20 million (when Congress said the maximum was $10 million).
They gave the money back and the public furor about publicly traded companies & PPP money died down. In fact, based on the lack of reporting you might think that the companies all gave their money back and everyone was fine.
Not only is that not right, it’s not even close to being right. Most of the companies didn’t give the money back.
Take Cutera for example. On the very day that they received $7 million in a PPP loan, they raised more than $26 million for stock sales. They obviously weren’t short of cash. In addition, the company had $19.5 million in cash plus an untouched $25 million line of credit from Wells Fargo.
And they didn’t give the money back. Here’s more information about some of the bad boys who didn’t give their money back.
Public Companies Who Didn’t Need PPP Loans & Took Them Anyway by CNBC nails down a few of the big companies who didn’t need the money.
The article above highlights a few public companies with plenty of cash that didn’t need the loans. But there are many more. And most of them didn’t return the money. Public companies who got PPP loans shows the companies. Look for the check box to see who did return the money. It’s not very many.
Don’t let these bad stories scare you. There IS money available for your business.
To learn more: The Small Business Dilemma: Take the PPP or EIDL Money or Not?
