Bank Of America is not being a good actor in the Payroll Protection Program. In the case of Zennie62Media and its rare-for-a-black-owned-firm-because-Bank-Of-America-wasn’t-trying-to-go-and recruit us PPP Loan of a mere $23,750 (compared to the average PPP loan size of $113,000), the bank, after months of elapsed time starting May 4, 2020, is now claiming that my firm received a completed Economic Injury Disaster Loan of $10,000, before the PPP program loan.
Complete bullcrap.
While the EIDL was applied for twice, the SBA never confirmed the loan, let alone completed the process to register it. I even called SBA about the matter, only to be faced with a constantly clogged phone system, and a computer website who’s webpage literally reset itself due to what appears to be some malfunctioning JavaScript code, thus dumping the info I inputed. And that this was happening during the initial panic surrounding The Pandemic made the entire process painful, even though I was determined to come away with what my firm needed: a PPP Loan sized to our needs.
The way the Bank of America / SBA PPP Application was written, one could mark that they were eligible to receive an EIDL. Indeed, the rule language back then during the late part of the month of March 2020 was that the EIDL was also for the Coronavirus problem. So, merging both was both logical and it seemed expected by the Small Business Administration.
Now, Bank of America said I had to have Zennie62Media pay back the $10,000 portion because the bank believes, and with zero proof because there is none, that I already got the $10,000. No.
If this is confusing to you, that is part of the problem. My take is that Bank of America and the Small Business Administration were literally trying to figure it out as they went along. A very bad move. It’s no wonder Forbes observed that “the regulations around both the PPP loan program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program have been changing constantly since the CARES Act was passed and will likely continue to do so.”
That is certainly the case, and Forbes should not be congratulating either lenders like Bank of America or the SBA – it should call for the problem to be fixed. Simple fix in my case is to just forgive the PPP Loan Zennie62Media received and spent within legal boundaries, not try and shake down my firm for $10,000. It is clear to be this is part of such a strategy.
I assert that because Bank of America Chief Financial Officer Paul M. Donofrio (who cleared $12,413,073 in 2019), told the New York Times he did not expect much profit (from the PPP Loan Program), “if any.”
Now, it’s clear that Bank of America itself needs a PPP Loan because it’s profit has been “halved” because of the same situation that gave rise to the need for the PPP Loan Program: The Coronavirus. So, since the matter of how the EIDL portion of my PPP Loan was handled by Bank of America in the form of a request to raid my Zennie62Media bank account, it is clear Bank of America decided that it was going to make loopholes to use against customers and demand money from them (us) using them!
Bank of America must stop this. It should not be trying to treat its business account holders (specifically my firm but there are certainly others) this way. Forgive the loans, or how about having Paul M. Donofrio cover Bank of America’s losses. I’m only kidding, but look, he makes $12,413,073, so why not at least suggest the idea?
Stay tuned.