REVEALED: Luxury hotel group Ashford Inc. is biggest beneficiary of PPP with $59MILLION after exploiting loophole to net SIX times the maximum payout - while laying off 95% of its staff and paying CEO MILLIONS in dividends

The luxury hotel group that owns Marriott Beverly Hills and the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta and is ran by a major Donald Trump donor has been named as the biggest beneficiary of the coronavirus loan program receiving a staggering $59million intended for small firms, while its boss has pocketed millions in dividends during the pandemic. 

Ashford Inc., a hospitality real estate business with several subsidiaries, has already received $30million in loans from the US Paycheck Protection Program set up by the federal government to help small businesses keep paying their workers and bills.

This is the biggest sum received by any public company from these loans and is around eight times the average amount granted to firms, according to analysis by the Wall Street Journal.

Public filings show that the group's subsidiaries also took home $12.8 million in loans and subsidiaries of affiliate company Braemar Hotels & Resorts have been granted $15.8 million.

This comes as CEO and chairman Monty Bennett, known for keeping exotic and endangered animals on his Dallas ranch, and other major shareholders including his father, have reportedly pocketed millions of dollars in preferred dividends as the coronavirus pandemic wages on.

Bennett is a major Trump donor, giving money to his race for the White House back in 2016 and donating $150,000 in the last six months for his reelection campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. 

A lender for subsidiary Ashford Hospitality Trust has slammed Bennett accusing him of committing a 'fraudulent scheme' and 'suspect insider transactions'. 

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Ashford Hospitality Trust, which owns several luxury properties including the Marriott Beverly Hills and the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta (above), didn't have money to cover its debts in March, Bennett said

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The Marriott Beverly Hills. Bennett and his father pocketed around $2millions in preferred dividends payments from the Trust, while hospitality staff lost their jobs

The exposé marks the latest in a string of scandals, where huge multi-million dollar companies rushed to pocket the emergency money designed for small businesses, leaving those it was intended for without a dime.  

The PPP was created by Congress and designed to loan money to small businesses with 500 employees or less to help them survive the economic downturn during the coronavirus crisis, ensuring they can still pay their employees and bills, and avoid mass layoffs.

Companies that use the money to avoid layoffs will not have to pay the money back.

However, multi-million dollar public companies lined up for the federal loans and bled the pot dry, with the government announcing last week the money had run out before smaller, eligible firms could get a dime.  

Due to legal loopholes, some large public companies with thousands of employees and easy access to credit were able to claim relief dollars through the scheme, depriving smaller businesses of tax-backed funds that could save them from going under. 

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Ashford Hospitality Trust has been buckling under debt and its share price is down 91 percent since April 2018

The program has a $10million limit, but large firms such as Ashford with its 7,000-plus workforce have been able to spread the claims over multiple subsidiaries with staff of less than 500 so that they can take home more of the funds.  

To sidestep the rulebook, Ashford has pocketed the $30million payout via a baffling 42 loans to different subsidiaries, according to an April 21 public filing. 

Subsidiaries of Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc., advised by Ashford Inc. and where Bennett also serves as chairman, had received $10.6million of its $15.8million as of Tuesday.

The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, as travel bans and stay-at-home orders have shuttered hotels.

Bennett joined other major hotel groups in March in urging the federal government to provide financial support to keep the industry afloat.

Ashford Inc. and its subsidiaries have laid off or furloughed 95 percent of its 7,000 employees.

One subsidiary, Ashford Hospitality Trust, which owns several luxury properties including the Marriott Beverly Hills and the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, has been buckling under debt and its share price is down 91 percent since April 2018.  

In March, Bennett said the Trust didn't have money to cover its debt payments. 

He has said that '75 percent or more of the proceeds' from the federal loan to the Trust 'will be used to bring our employees back to work with the balance to be used to pay utilities, rent, and debt service to lenders.'

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Table: Some of the public companies, listed in order of their market value, who have recieved loans from the Paycheck Protection Program set up to help small businesses

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The number of jobless claims in the United States has soared, with more than 4.4 million people filing for unemployment last week

But while his hospitality staff found themselves out of work, Bennett has reportedly taken millions out of the ailing Trust in dividends. 

Bennett is the largest shareholder of Ashford Inc. and owns 6.9 percent of Ashford Hospitality Trust through shares and other securities, making him one of the company's largest shareholders, the Journal reported.  

Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that Ashford Hospitality Trust paid more than $10million in dividends to third-party preferred shareholders, with Bennett and his father receiving more than $2million in quarterly dividends from the trust's adviser. 

Bennett claims that paying the dividends to shareholders might complicate its efforts to raise more capital. 

Ashford Inc told DailyMail.com Thursday that 'dividends were declared and authorized to be paid on March 15 while the depth of the pandemic was not known to us - or anyone at that time. 

'Even so, all common dividends were cut, and only some preferred dividends were paid,' the statement said.

But Brookfield Asset Management, a lender on properties owned by Ashford Hospitality Trust, has slammed Bennett accusing him of committing a 'fraudulent scheme' by moving money from hotels to the parent company in the second week of March in a letter from its attorneys seen by the Journal.    

It alleges that Bennett has shown a 'pattern of suspect insider transactions designed to accelerate or disproportionately benefit insiders even as creditors are not being paid.'  

Bennett responded by claiming Brookfield is trying to bully the Trust into accepting unfavorable loan terms. 

He pointed out that his own salary has been slashed by 20 percent and 25 percent of his $2.3million cash bonus for last year has been deferred. 

It's not the first time the hotel boss has courted controversy, after he engaged in a public fight with a water district that wanted to lay a pipeline through his ranch. 

Several large companies have been slammed for taking funds from the PPP set up for smaller businesses hard hit by the pandemic.  

Research from Morgan Stanley shows that of the fund's $349 billion, $243.4 million of the loans was allocated to at least 90 publicly traded companies, which could have gone to help around 1,100 smaller businesses, causing public outrage.  

Large restaurant chains managed to navigate loopholes in the program more than most as they were exempt from the 500-employee cap if they had less than 500 workers per location  

Ruth's Hospitality Group Inc., owner of Ruth's Chris Steak House chain, received $20 million, the second highest amount after Ashford.   

Fiesta Restaurant Group, the parent company of the Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana brands which employs more than 10,000 workers, claimed the maximum $10 million in loans.

Other large restaurants chains like Potbelly and Ruth's Chris Steak House also secured the maximum $10 million.

Burger chain Shake Shack agreed to return its $10million loan after facing a backlash from small and family-ran restaurant owners. 

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 4,400 of the approved loans exceeded $5 million when nationally the typical amount requested from the program was $206,000.

If the $243.4 million claimed by the corporate giants had been split fairly between typical businesses requesting money through the program, over 1,100 more businesses could have received funds.

'The intent of this money was not for big public companies that had access to capital,' Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said when addressing the issue during Tuesday's White House press briefing.

The department also highlighted that 74 percent of the loans were for less than $150,000, saying this demonstrated that the loan is accessible 'to even the smallest of small businesses.'

Lenders have approved 1.6 million loans from the PPP which depleted last week.

One Democratic Senator, Gary Peters of Michigan, has called for an investigation into how funds from the Paycheck Protection Program were distributed.

Peters sent a letter on Tuesday to Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking for the investigation.

In his letter, we wrote that 'a substantial amount of PPP loans have gone to large hotel and restaurant chains, rather than the struggling small and minority-owned businesses who may be forced to permanently close their doors without urgent assistance.

'I am concerned that PPP loans may not have gone to those who need them most,' he added.

With the PPP funding now depleted, lawmakers are scrambling to pass new legislation that would see a further $331 billion available to small businesses as part of a wider $483 billion coronavirus relief package.

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Big national restaurant chains like Ruth's Chris and Potbelly also walked away with millions under the PPE program meant for small businesses 

President Donald Trump is urging swift passage this week. The Senate approved the bill on Tuesday and the House planned a vote on Thursday.

Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, however, he won't consider another coronavirus stimulus package until the Senate reconvenes May 4, even though Donald Trump is pushing for another major relief bill and urging his party to support it.  

The bipartisan bill, Washington's fourth in response to the crisis, is not expected to be the last as lawmakers take unprecedented steps to confront the virus and prop up communities nationwide amid the health crisis.

Most of the funding, $331 billion, would go to boost the small-business payroll loan program. There would be $100 billion for health care, with $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies.

There is $60 billion for a small-business loans and grants.

As part of the new agreement, around $60 billion has been set aside for - and divided equally among - smaller banks and community lenders, a nod to neighborhoods and rural areas under-served by banks.