Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump has announced that he will force Harvard University and other big businesses to return emergency coronavirus funding designed for smaller companies. Point to be noted that controversy surrounded the PPP (Paychecks Protection Program) after it was discovered big businesses like Harvard University and Shake Shack applied for and received emergency funding. The university has a multi-billion dollar endowment and it received nearly $9 million from the PPP. Trump said during his daily coronavirus briefing, “Harvard’s going to pay back the money. They shouldn’t have taken it. I’m not going to mention any other names, but when I saw Harvard, they have one of the largest endowments anywhere in the country, in the world, I guess. And they’re going to pay back that money.”

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also clarified that there was some confusion among big businesses on if they qualified for funding in the PPP or not. It is noteworthy that the US federal government would give big businesses time to repay the funding, but they could face consequences if they don’t. Mnuchin said, “Certain people under PPP may not have been clear in understanding the certification, so we’re going to give people the benefit of the doubt. If you pay back the loan right away, you won’t have liability to the SBA (Small Business Administration) and to Treasury, but there are severe consequences who don’t attest properly to the certification.”

Mnuchin also said, “We want to make sure this money is available to small businesses that need it, people who have invested their entire life savings”. Point to be noted that Shake Shack returned its $10 million PPP loan after learning their business did not qualify for the funding. There are questions about what businesses would actually qualify for a PPP loan that came after the Senate passed an emergency stimulus package that would add an additional $310 billion in funding for PPP.