A transportation company owned by Mike Collins, a Republican running for Congress in Georgia’s 10th District, received a $920,000 loan in April of 2020 as part of the Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The next year Collins personally loaned his political campaign a total of $465,000, none of which has been repaid by the campaign.
It is unclear if Collins repaid these PPP loans or whether they were forgiven. The federal government does not distinguish between the two options in its reporting.
According to FederalPay.org, Collins Trucking Company received $920,000 on April 9, 2020. The website currently lists the loan as “Paid in Full or Forgiven,” and below notes that “This loan’s status is reported by the SBA as ‘Paid in Full’, which includes both loans repaid and those fully forgiven from repayment under PPP guidelines.” The website adds that “The loan’s status was last updated by the SBA in April, 2021,” perhaps indicating the loan was forgiven.
Meanwhile, the FEC reports that Collins loaned his campaign $400,000 on June 30, 2021, and another $65,000 on December 31, 2021. Neither of those loans have been repaid to date, per the FEC website.
Valiant News contacted the Collins campaign on Thursday to determine whether the loans were repaid or forgiven, and again on Friday to ask about Collins’ $465,000 in loans to his campaign and the PPP loans, and did not receive a response.
PPP loans, which were created as part of the CARES Act during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, are reportedly rife with fraud and abuse.
It was recently described as the “biggest fraud in a generation” by NBC News, which also reported that experts believe “as much as $80 billion” was stolen via fraud as a result of the PPP program.
This would mean approximately 10% of the $800 billion in taxpayer dollars set aside for the program may have disappeared.
Others estimate the total may be higher, with the New York Times reporting that a recent study revealed up to 15% of PPP loans could have been fraudulent.
Georgia Republicans, meanwhile, are no strangers to financial controversy.
Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost her election in January of 2021, was dogged by accusations of financial wrongdoing after her stock portfolio was liquidated only days before the Trump administration announced its response to COVID-19. The economy tumbled soon after that response.
Loeffler, whose husband is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, has maintained that she did nothing wrong and the trades were made by a neutral third party. Her husband is now a billionaire.
Collins currently in a packed primary race in the 10th district, with Ballotpedia currently tracking 11 candidates in the race.
Among them are Vernon Jones, a former Democrat and close ally of President Donald Trump – he received Trump’s endorsement when he announced his candidacy – and Paul Broun, who represented the 10th district in Congress during the Bush and Obama administrations.
