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Treasury points the finger at lenders over errors in PPP loan database

08 July 2020
Dan Ackermann

The U.S. Treasury Department is pointing the finger at lenders for errors discovered in Monday's PPP data disclosure.

What they're saying: "Companies listed had their PPP applications entered into SBA’s Electronic Transmission (ETran) system by an approved PPP lender. If a lender did not cancel the loan in the ETran system, the loan is listed," a senior administration official said.

This explanation makes the most sense for phantom loans like the one listed for e-scooter company Bird, given that the SBA shouldn't otherwise have its financial information.

What we still don't know, however, is how many errors were made. I'm now hearing more talk of audits, although it remains unclear exactly what form they would take.

There also was a ton of reporting yesterday about PPP loans received by companies with ties to people like Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden.

  • Such disclosure carries not just the intrinsic value of transparency for taxpayers, and also serve as receipts if politicians later criticize PPP or claim to have not really supported it.
  • But, but, but: There isn't anything wrong with any of these connections, so long as the loan recipient was truthful in the application. PPP was primarily designed to keep people on payroll, whether a small-town bartender or a front-desk worker at a Trump-branded hotel. It was an intentionally blunt instrument that didn't discriminate by the wealth or connections of someone's employer.

What's next: Soon we could get a better picture about how many payrolls were actually protected, as loan forgiveness applications are submitted and processed.

  • Treasury provided an estimate of 51 million jobs, but that's already coming under scrutiny (and not just because of phantom loans).

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.