I, for one, am looking forward to hearing his side of the story

On my daily walks, I'm seeing regular signs that there are plenty of small, local businesses that are going out of. The nice little candy and nut store. The restaurant I didn't go to that often, but liked when I did. Etc. And that's just the ones that are in storefronts that are in walking distance of my home. I can only imagine what's happening beyond my walking distance, let alone with the non-storefront businesses. Sure, things will pick up. Eventually. And businesses (even if they're different ones entirely) will come back to fill in the blanks. Eventually. But mostly it's pretty devastating to see. And no doubt devastating to experience for the folks who own(ed) these businesses. 

Enraging, too. Especially when we know that the botched national response to the pandemic has created so much of the devastation. And especially since we've gotten confirmation that what we thought had happened with respect to the non-national response was not a figment of a collective blue state conspiracy theory. That, in fact, the major reason there was no national strategy to combat the pandemic was a calculation that only blue states would be hit, so there was no political benefit to be had from coming up with a strategy. And no political loss. (Win-Win in Drumpf terms.) In fact, the political benefit that Kushner & Co. were counting on was that they could blame Democratic blue state governors for whatever awfulness took place in their state. Swell!

What's also enraging is when I read about rotters who conned money out of the Paycheck Protection Program without protecting anyone's paycheck but their own.

Case in point is a Florida man:

David Tyler Hines, 29, not only filed fraudulent PPP applications, but also spent the money on a $318,497.53 Lamborghini Huracán EVO and other "luxury and personal items," including nearly $5,000 at Saks Fifth Ave, more than $11,000 at two Miami-area hotels and a $8,530 purchase at Graff Diamonds, investigators say.

"There does not appear to be any business purpose for most, if not all, of these expenses," the criminal complaint reads. (Source: CNN)

Hines was the beneficiary of $4M in PPP loans - he'd been looking fr $13.5M - low interest and forgivable. That is, forgivable if Hines was actually paying employees. 

"Those purported employees either did not exist or earned a fraction of what Hines claimed," US Postal Inspector Bryan Masmela wrote in the complaint.

He did disburse $30K of his PPP funds to "Mom", and another $19K to himself. Plus spent money on dating sites, and for food delivery. 

Is a payment to Mom forgivable? Not that you can't have a family member in your business, but what was Mom doing to earn a payment of $15K on May 13th, and another $15k on May 27th?

 

And, of course, that Lamborghini was no way going to be forgivable, unless Hines could convince someone that he needed a company car.

How this bum and his four moving-related "businesses" passed the screen is beyond me. 

According to the Justice Department, investigators did not find any operating websites for any of the four companies. The complaint noted that Promaster and We-Pack Moving were both listed as F-rated businesses by the Better Business Bureau. (Source: Heavy)

Hines, not surprisingly, sees things differently. And he's rather prudently using some of his PPP to lawyer up. (Although, seriously, if you were accused of fraud, would you hire a lawyer named Chad???)

"David is a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the pandemic," Hines attorney Chad Piotrowski told CNN in a statement. "While the allegations appear very serious, especially in light of the pandemic, David is anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes." (Source: CNN)

And I for one am looking forward to hearing this legitimate business owner's side.

Meanwhile, I don't suppose anyone will be surprised to learn that, a week before Hines was busted for PPP fraud, he got a $100 ticket in Miami for not wearing a mask...