‘I wish I got $2M’: Beaufort Co. businesses challenge coronavirus relief loan data
Did a Hilton Head Comedy Club get a loan of over $2 million to pay fewer than 10 staff members?
According to data released by the Small Business Administration, nine Beaufort County businesses and one nonprofit received Paycheck Protection Program loans of between $2 million and $5 million.
But the club and other businesses on the list are saying, ‘not a chance,’ and that the incorrect SBA data is harming their reputations and their earning potential.
Five of the nine businesses on the list are contesting their loan amounts, saying not only that they didn’t receive what’s listed but that their businesses wouldn’t be eligible for a payroll loan in the millions because they employ so few people.
The full list of PPP loan recipients in Beaufort County provided by the SBA was published by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers Wednesday morning. The data was obtained after several large news organizations filed suit to get records on the taxpayer dollars used to fund the loans for small businesses.
All five businesses’ loans were obtained through the same lender: Radius Bank. The bank is listed as the lender for 16 loans in Beaufort and Jasper Counties.
Radius Bank loans being contested
Among the businesses that contest their loan amounts:
Citadel Electric LLC is listed by SBA as receiving between $2 million and $5 million from Radius Bank on May 4.
But reached by phone Tuesday, owner Nathan Thomas said the PPP funds were used to cover payroll for the company’s two employees. He added that the SBA data was wrong: His company received a loan of $12,500, he said.
“I wish I got $2 to $5 million,” he said.
Ellis Construction Co. Inc is listed by SBA as receiving the same amount, also from Radius, on April 30. But owner Marc Ellis told The Island Packet he is contesting the SBA report of his loan. He did not specify how much money his company received, but said the loan amount was under $150,000.
Hilton Head Comedy Magic Cabaret is listed as receiving between $2 million and $5 million from Radius Bank on April 27. Club owner Kelly Pollock said the club’s actual loan was under $35,000.
The club closed on March 16 and has not yet reopened, according to its Facebook page. Pollock said the loan money, which took five weeks to arrive, helped pay the club’s nine employees.
Memory Lane Portraits on Hilton Head is listed by SBA as also receiving between $2 million and $5 million on April 15. Stephen Dey, who said his studio has two full-time employees, said his actual loan amount was between $10,000 and $30,000.
He declined to provide documentation of the specific loan amount Tuesday, but the Charlotte resident said the loan helped keep his small business alive.
“The loan was extremely helpful. We’re all floundering,” he said of small businesses. “To receive the funds and to put somebody back to work was extremely gratifying.”
He said his employees were furloughed from mid-March until mid-May, when he received the loan.
Dey said he originally was working through his local bank but was then transferred to Radius Bank because loan application volume so high. He said working with Radius was difficult because the bank required more information, like his 2019 tax returns instead of 2018 tax returns, to apply for the loan.
SCDLW, LLC was listed as receiving the same amount from Radius on April 27. The company’s owner said Tuesday that the loan amount was wildly inaccurate.
The only other firm in the $2 million to $5 million loan category which got a loan from Radius Bank, EVS Brokerage Services, declined to comment on the loan.
In Wisconsin, a small business owner living in the Milwaukee area told CNBC this week that she had applied for a PPP loan of roughly $9,300 through Radius Bank and received just over $2,000. But she was listed in the SBA data released Monday as having been approved for a loan of $5 million to $10 million, CNBC reported.
A spokesperson for Radius Bank told CNBC that multiple zeros were accidentally added into a part of the 72-year-old woman’s application and that an internal database maintained by Radius had the correct loan amount noted.
“The reporting on the SBA side appears to be delayed or incorrect,” the spokesperson, Kathleen Barrett, told CNBC.
Loans from other banks
The four remaining firms that received PPP loans between $2 million and $5 million obtained them from different lenders.
One of those firms, The Greenery landscaping service on Hilton Head, confirmed its loan amount on Tuesday.
Lee Edwards said the loan helped him keep people employed even as the pandemic gripped the county and put a pause to landscaping jobs related to RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing and hotel tourism.
Edwards’ company got its PPP loan from South State Bank and employs 466 people.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 5:05 PM.
