“PPP was sold to the American people as a program to help Mom-and-Pop shops keep their lights on during the pandemic,” said Accountable.US watchdog president Kyle Herrig to NBC News. “The reality is that the Trump administration created a program that helped the well connected cut to the front of the line to get these loans.”

PPP applicants also included multimillionaire pop artist Jeff Koons, Hollywood producer Francis Ford Coppola, Hamptons property developer Joe Farrell and the Church of Scientology, which is reported to be worth at least $1 billion.

Those businesses needed to prove in their application that “current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant”.