Researchers Have So Far Uncovered 199 Publicly-Held Companies Which Received the Coveted, Forgivable PPP Loans in the $350 Bil First Round of Small Business Loans, With 53 of Them Receiving PPP Loans of More Than $5 Mil of the 4,412 Companies (Both Privately-Held and Publicly-Held) Which Received PPP Loans of More Than $5 Mil Each For a Total of $30.9 Bil. And a Handful of Them Are Foreign Companies. The Final Number Should Be Substantially More Than 199 Publicly-Held Companies. This PPP Small Business (?) Loan Program Sucks and is a Complete Embarrassment to the US Government, to the Hotel and Restaurant Industries and Also to JPMorgan Chase.

The Most Egregious Offender Uncovered So Far of the Lot is Grand Rapids, Michigan-Based Meritage Hospitality Group, Which is a Franchisee of 331 Wendy's Restaurants Along With Operating Other Restaurant Concepts, Has 11,000 Employees, is an Aggressive Acquirer of Restaurants and Which Also Received a (Small Business?) PPP Loan of $29.1 Mil, Which Is Effectively Stealing Money From Many Michigan Truly Small Businesses Which Desperately Need the Money To Survive in This Horrific COVID-19 Environment.

And Meritage Hospitality Group did not disclose the bank which made the PPP Loans.

The second most egregious offender so far are two related publicly-held Hotel Income-Tax-Free REITs as well as a related hotel management services company all based in Dallas, Texas ..... The two Hotel REITs are Ashland Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels and Resorts (formerly named Ashland Hospitality Prime), which is a spinoff from Ashland Hospitality Trust.

Ashland Hospitality Trust owns 117 upper scale hotel properties of hotel brands Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Intercontinental Hotel Group as well as 90 hotel condominium units at Quest Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Braemor Hotels and Resorts owns 13 luxury hotels and resorts properties.

Ashland Hospitality Trust has either received or expects to receive PPP Loans totaling $76.0 mil and Braemar Hotels and Resorts has either received or expects to receive PPP Loans of $34.3 mil.

Ashford Inc is the hotel management company and has either received or expects to receive $16.1 mil.

Thus the total of these three PPP Loans are $126.4 mil.

And who was the bank that approved these large Paycheck Protection Program Loans?  KeyBank.

The third most egregious offender so far is Fort Lauderdale-based Auto Nation, the nation's largest chain of auto dealerships ..... 231 stores.  The Washington Post reported that Auto Nation received nearly $95 mil in total PPP Loans.  And Auto Nation deceptively refused to file the required 8ks to the SEC informing the public that it received this $95 mil in total PPP Loans.