The Trump administration approved a $750 million pandemic loan earmarked for national security to a trucking company, who has a history of defrauding the US Gov't, despite DOD objections The loans to YRC Worldwide Inc., now called Yellow Corporation, violated stipulations in the CARES Act, and senior Trump officials – "potentially including the president" – were involved in getting the loan approved. The report by the Select Subcommittee found that "career DOD officials recommended against certifying the company as 'critical to maintaining national security,'" finding that "other companies could replace the trucking services Yellow provided to DOD, which were less than half of what the company claimed." The Defense Department officials also noted, per the report, an ongoing Department of Justice lawsuit against Yellow for "fraudulently overcharging DOD, which Yellow misleadingly described to Treasury merely a 'contractual dispute.'" The Justice Department announced in March that Yellow agreed to pay $6.85 million to resolve allegations of presenting false claims to the DOD and "systematically overcharging for freight carrier services and making false statements to hide their misconduct." According to the Select Subcommittee's report, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requested a phone call with Defense Secretary Mark Esper in June 2020, after Mnuchin was informed that the DOD was not planning to classify Yellow as "critical" to national security. Following the phone call, the DOD certified the company as "critical," making it eligible for the $700 million loan.
Yellow Corp is a big company which is probably not needed to be said. I'm sure we've all seen their trucks. They are also in financial distress, they have 2 billion in assets with negative equity. I guess this just happened, or the report has just been submitted, but this should be big news. I was ready to roll my eyes as with most Trump investigations but this is definitely suspect
Loved to have read about this in the NYT or WaPo when it happened but looks like they buried the story on page A56 to help Trump and Mnuchin. It's weird how they had Maggie Haberman living in Trump's DMs for years but official corruption they send the economics reporter out to write something nobody will read.
In response to the Select Committee's report, Yellow spokesperson Heather Nauert provided a letter sent by Yellow lawyer , Marc Kasowitz , which describes the committee's findings as "unsubstantiated, and indeed demonstrably false. According to the report, a "career DOD official" in June 2020 told the Treasury Department and political appointees that the Pentagon would not certify Yellow as critical to national security. They noted that “plenty of other trucking companies” could provide Yellow's same services and cited concerns over a now-settled lawsuit that was pending between the Department of Justice and the company for fraudulently overcharging the government. btw, https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork...to-know-about-trump-lawyer-marc-kasowitz.html in additional to defending Trump on all legal matters related to the ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to allegedly influence the 2016 election, .Marc Kasowitz had also represented Trump in numerous cases, including on his divorce records. advised the 45th president when allegations of fraud were brought against Trump University threatened to sue The New York Times if it didn't retract a story in which multiple women accused Trump of sexual harassment ( The Times refused). He also represents Russia's largest bank, OJSC Sberbank of Russia, which is being accused in a U.S. federal court of conspiring with granite company executives and others to raid the assets of a competitor ( h/t Reuters).
