Leonard Helplessness
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2018
Who wants to treasure hunt? Do you want to treasure hunt? Do you want to scroll through gigantic fucking CSVs of business names and addresses full of obfuscated data in search of companies and nonprofits you particularly hate who managed to get their hands on gobs and gobs of free government money while you got a fabulous $1,200?
Damn fuckin' right you do. The FOIA has come through. The SBA PPP (Small Business Administration Payroll Protection Program) loan list has been published in somewhat redacted form.
Background
One of the provisions of the CARES Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020, was the launch of the Payroll Protection Program. The intent of this program was to ensure that small businesses that were being forced into lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic would not be forced to go into bankruptcy and/or stop paying their employees. Businesses up to a certain size could apply for and receive a loan that would cover 2.5 months of payroll, the loan was two years in duration at 1% interest, and the loan would be partially or totally forgiven as long as it was spent the way it was intended.
In reality, the implementation of the loan was a shitstorm, and since it was essentially free money, there was a frenzied rush by every single business in the country to get as much of it as possible. The loan application process was handled through the banks, and the banks favored their biggest customers and ensured that they got loan money -- even when they were too big to qualify for PPP loans -- while everybody else was left holding their dicks in their hands after the PPP funds dried up.
Also, amusingly, the PPP loans were not impact-tested. Any business, including businesses that were positively impacted by the pandemic, could get a quick, delicious injection of free taxpayer money.
The Big Reveal
Recently, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the SBA has released data on all PPP loans that were received. The data was published in the form of CSV files, which are extremely easy to search and filter. The data has been redacted somewhat:
The Tea
There is some seriously fucked up shit in the >$150,000 list. There are megachurches that were spending $5-10 million on payroll every 2.5 months. Some investigative journalists have been finding businesses owned by wealthy politicians in the >$150,000 list, though I'm too tired at the moment to dig up names. I'll take care of this tomorrow. There are all kinds of businesses getting fed gobs and gobs and gobs of free money that they do not need and should not have qualified to receive.
Have an adventure!
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-is...a-paycheck-protection-program-loan-level-data to get started. You'll probably want to download the biggest zipfile at the top of the page, then just go wild in Excel. Pivot tables or even just the Filter tool are fuckin magic for this. Look for any business that is notoriously sketchy or corrupt or that you personally hate.
If the FOIA file is taken down I imagine there will be a public uproar, but if it does anyway, PM me and I'll try and get the whole thing posted here.
Oh, and because I know someone's going to try: I tried Lolcow LLC, 1776 Hosting, and 1776 Solutions in the >$150,000 sheet and got no hits. I also opened the <$150,000 sheet for Florida and filtered for only LLCs in the zipcode listed on the Kiwi Farms's contact page, and got over a hundred hits totaling several million bucks, so good fuckin luck if you're going to try and dox Dear Leader's jewgold supply.
Damn fuckin' right you do. The FOIA has come through. The SBA PPP (Small Business Administration Payroll Protection Program) loan list has been published in somewhat redacted form.
Background
One of the provisions of the CARES Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020, was the launch of the Payroll Protection Program. The intent of this program was to ensure that small businesses that were being forced into lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic would not be forced to go into bankruptcy and/or stop paying their employees. Businesses up to a certain size could apply for and receive a loan that would cover 2.5 months of payroll, the loan was two years in duration at 1% interest, and the loan would be partially or totally forgiven as long as it was spent the way it was intended.
In reality, the implementation of the loan was a shitstorm, and since it was essentially free money, there was a frenzied rush by every single business in the country to get as much of it as possible. The loan application process was handled through the banks, and the banks favored their biggest customers and ensured that they got loan money -- even when they were too big to qualify for PPP loans -- while everybody else was left holding their dicks in their hands after the PPP funds dried up.
Also, amusingly, the PPP loans were not impact-tested. Any business, including businesses that were positively impacted by the pandemic, could get a quick, delicious injection of free taxpayer money.
The Big Reveal
Recently, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the SBA has released data on all PPP loans that were received. The data was published in the form of CSV files, which are extremely easy to search and filter. The data has been redacted somewhat:
- For loans of up to $150,000, there is a separate CSV for each state with lines listing each loan amount, but the identity of each borrower is redacted. You can see their city, state, ZIP, NAICS code and a few other things, but not business names.
- For loans of $150,000 and above, there is one gigantic fucking CSV with every borrower's name and address. The loan amount at this level is redacted down to a range; the lowest range is $150,000-350,000 and the highest range is $5-10 million.
The Tea
There is some seriously fucked up shit in the >$150,000 list. There are megachurches that were spending $5-10 million on payroll every 2.5 months. Some investigative journalists have been finding businesses owned by wealthy politicians in the >$150,000 list, though I'm too tired at the moment to dig up names. I'll take care of this tomorrow. There are all kinds of businesses getting fed gobs and gobs and gobs of free money that they do not need and should not have qualified to receive.
Have an adventure!
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-is...a-paycheck-protection-program-loan-level-data to get started. You'll probably want to download the biggest zipfile at the top of the page, then just go wild in Excel. Pivot tables or even just the Filter tool are fuckin magic for this. Look for any business that is notoriously sketchy or corrupt or that you personally hate.
If the FOIA file is taken down I imagine there will be a public uproar, but if it does anyway, PM me and I'll try and get the whole thing posted here.
Oh, and because I know someone's going to try: I tried Lolcow LLC, 1776 Hosting, and 1776 Solutions in the >$150,000 sheet and got no hits. I also opened the <$150,000 sheet for Florida and filtered for only LLCs in the zipcode listed on the Kiwi Farms's contact page, and got over a hundred hits totaling several million bucks, so good fuckin luck if you're going to try and dox Dear Leader's jewgold supply.
Last edited:
