Federal Loan Database Overstates PPP Loans Received by Pasadena Businessman by $4.7 Million

Federal officials released a listing of businesses that had received Paycheck Protection Program loans earlier this week, but a Pasadena restaurant owner says the figures overstated the amount received by his business by more than 16 times.

Jack Huang, who runs Sorisso-Bar Celona, Ix Tapa Cantina and a small management office received $307,137 in PPP loans for parent company Grestone Investment Associates, and showed documentation and bank statements backing up the assertion.

And while he said he was glad to receive any help he could get, he was a bit surprised to see his company listed in the U.S. Treasury Department’s database as having received between $5 million and $10 million in PPP loans, well over 16 times the amount he actually received.

Huang said he has inquired with the federal Small Business Association on Thursday but was yet to hear anything back on Friday.

“I asked them to correct that because as small business owners, we don’t want people to think we got a lot of money and we’re still out here crying poor, which is not the case,” Huang said.

About 60 percent of the PPP money has gone to payroll, and the other 40 percent to rent and utilities, he said. “I’m now about a hundred thousand dollars behind on rent.”

Huang said he’s not sure what will happen if the indoor dining ban continues after the PPP money runs out in the coming weeks.

“We’re all kind of stuck in the mud and hoping people could be more responsible and these (COVID-19) cases will go down,” Huang said.

The listing was published in an effort to make the process more transparent, federal officials said.

But other businesses have reported major discrepancies as well, Axios reported.

Some, such as the Bird e-scooter company, were listed as receiving millions of dollars in PPP loans. However, in Bird’s case, both company representatives and the bank that purportedly issued the loan say the company received no funding.