Watchdog raises possible link to Trump family and $700M Treasury loan to JoCo firm

A member of a congressional oversight commission this week suggested that cronyism involving President Donald Trump’s family factored into the U.S. Treasury’s decision to fast-track a $700 million loan to near-bankrupt Overland Park trucking firm YRC Worldwide earlier this year.

Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the congressional commission that oversees Treasury and Federal Reserve spending in response to the coronavirus pandemic, quizzed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday about the propriety of the loan and the ties that YRC’s largest creditor has to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The Treasury authorized the $700 million loan under the Coronavirus Aid, Recovery and Economic Security Act, a $2 trillion stimulus package meant to shore up the U.S. economy as it was pummeled by the pandemic. YRC received the loan under a part of the CARES Act to help businesses that the Defense Department deemed critical to national security.

YRC is a contractor to the Defense Department and ships military supplies. Its largest creditor prior to receiving the Treasury loan was private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which last year was the lead lender on a $600 million loan agreement that gave YRC more liquidity. Apollo also previously loaned $184 million to the real estate development firm Kushner Companies.

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