N.Y. Building Owners Under PPP Loan Fraud Scrutiny

NEW YORK, NY– It has been learned that the Department of Justice is probing a series of Covid-related firings in New York’s building services industry following a slew of Federal Civil Rights lawsuits by unionized residential building workers. The suits, filed by members of union SEIU 32BJ and 1199—doormen, porters, superintendents—allege their union and the labor board representing building owners rigged their arbitrations, has put private industry unions on warning across the country.

“The union president (of SEIU 32BJ) is walking on eggshells now.” Said a union member who did not want his name published. “Typically when 32BJ gets investigated, they just change out the union president and he disappears from the public, but now everybody is worried he will be led out of the headquarters in handcuffs.”

The concern brewing within the 32BJ union revolves around terminations of non-vaccinated workers during Covid, which workers claim not only violated Federal Law, but is also forbidden by the terms of their collective bargaining agreement.

The Department of Justice investigation, according to sources, has linked the collusion between the union president and building owner labor boards to unpaid Small Business Administration program loans, drawn on by building owners during Covid. The loans, serviced through major banks, known as “PPP loans” were meant for businesses in financial straits due to Covid-19. PPP loans came with a myriad of Federal, State and local municipal regulations.

“What happened was the owners took out multi-million dollar loans to fund extracurricular activities in these buildings of theirs, knowing there would be repayment loopholes.” Said a source close to the investigation. “The choice was simple in New York, if one hundred percent of your staff is vaccinated, you could skip out on repaying the debt, so anybody who invoked their right to not be vaccinated got fired, otherwise these fat cats would have to pay back their multi-million dollar debts.”

Some of the Federal lawsuits allege that portions of PPP loan money was allocated by building owners to fund litigation defenses for owners from terminated employees through the purchase of lawsuit insurance policies. The Justice Department is now investigating if those insurance policies were misused, through fees paid to employment law attorneys and firms, to deny terminated employees their protections under The Civil Rights Act.