He apparently also told the bank handling his application that he had connections with "multiple unnamed U.S. senators" to get the loans. He also allegedly told the bank "some senators or their staff had advised him on the application process." Gee, I wonder which senator and/or staff might have been in that group? Maybe the senator who wrote the PPP into existence? This looks so bad. In an email sent to a bank executive on April 7, he wrote that he had been in telephone contact with a U.S. senator and member of Congress who "were very adamant about stepping in, if our application was getting stalled."
Collins' spokesperson, Annie Clark, said in a statement Thursday: "Neither Senator Collins nor her office have had any contact with Mr. Kao or anyone else at Navatek regarding the Paycheck Protection Program." That's entirely possible. It could have been Sen. Brian Schatz from Hawaii, who has also received donations from Kao. He doesn't seem to have a Kao super PAC dedicated to his reelection, but Schatz's office might have been involved. There's no indication that any senator did anything underhanded to help secure these loans. But it smells. A lot.
Kenji Price, the U.S. attorney for the district of Hawaii, said in a press conference announcing the charges against Kao: "These investigations unfortunately reveal what experience teaches. When the federal government distributes money there is generally a fraudster out there who tries to get his or her hands on it illegally." That's particularly true when there's a Trump administration willing to overlook fraud, and a Congress that passes bill that doesn't have the necessary protections written in to stop it. Like the bill Collins wrote with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Is every member of Congress responsible for the lawbreaking that their big donors commit? No. But when the fraud costs American taxpayers millions of dollars—millions of dollars intended to keep small businesses afloat and to keep their employees on payroll—the very least a lawmaker should do is return all that campaign cash. Or donate it to any one of the nonprofits trying to keep struggling Americans from going hungry or becoming homeless during this pandemic.
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