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Companies with thousands of employees, past penalties from government investigations and risks of financial failure even before the coronavirus walloped the economy were among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses through the crisis, an Associated Press investigation found. (Dunklin, Pritchard, Myers and FAuria, 4/21)

The federal government gave national hotel and restaurant chains millions of dollars in grants before the $349 billion program ran out of money Thursday, leading to a backlash that prompted one company to give the money back and a Republican senator to say that “millions of dollars are being wasted.” Thousands of traditional small businesses were unable to get funding from the program before it ran dry. (O'Connell, 4/20)

Buried deep in the 900-page stimulus package that Congress passed in March, a single paragraph has sparked an outcry from small restaurants as major chains and mom-and-pop places alike scramble to survive a devastating financial crisis. The provision, in a section outlining which small businesses qualify for loans from the federal government, allowed big chains like Shake Shack, Potbelly and Ruth’s Chris Steak House to get tens of millions of dollars while many smaller restaurants walked away with nothing when the $349 billion fund was exhausted last week. (Yaffe-Bellany, 4/20)

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said Monday that Congress needs to make changes to a program that provides aid to small businesses, arguing that larger companies and those that have not been hurt by the coronavirus are receiving assistance... “I am concerned that many businesses with thousands of employees have found loopholes to qualify for these loans meant for small businesses. Unfortunately, when it comes to the PPP, millions of dollars are being wasted," he said in a statement. (Carney, 4/20)

While many small businesses have found it difficult or impossible to get one of the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program loans, a company owned by a prominent Chicago family with close ties to the Trump Administration was able to get a $5.5 million loan under the program, according to documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. (Benincasa, 4/20)

Leaders of one of California’s largest workers’ compensation insurers, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, announced Monday that it will pay COVID-19 medical costs and income losses for employees at essential businesses that it covers, whether they contracted the illness at work or not. The agency estimated that it will spend $215 million, more than four times what it announced last week, to expand this benefit and others to assist policyholders and their employees in overcoming challenges posed by COVID-19. Public health officials require infected people to quarantine themselves, meaning many will lose out on income from work. (Anderson, 4/20)