A Fortune 500 auto company worth $3billion received nearly $95million in federal small-business funds, almost double the amount of any company that received money through the Paycheck Protection Program.

The $95million received by AutoNation is said to have been spread among dozens of their more than 300 locations and intended to use the funds to help employees. Funds for PPP ran out last week, with thousands of small businesses left without a dime.

AutoNation Executive Vice President Marc Cannon said that the company's board voted on Thursday to return the funds, the Washington Post reports.

AutoNation Executive Vice President Marc Cannon said that the company's board voted on Thursday to return the funds

The $95million received by AutoNation is said to have been spread among dozens of their more than 300 locations

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

The publicly held firm has 26,000 employees across 18 states, but used separate tax identification numbers assigned to the locations to apply for at least $266million in funds for separate dealerships.

These included Jaguar and Land Rover Bethesda, Prosche Orlando and Lexus of Cerritos.

'The majority of our dealerships are able to apply for this,' executive James J. Murphy said in a call last week, according to an anonymous employee who was on the call.

Spreadsheets were compiled to see which dealerships had applied, been approved and received the funds.

What is the small-business relief program? The Paycheck Protection Program exhausted its $350 billion in funding last week and many small businesses were unable to obtain loans they desperately need to stay afloat. Congress and the White House say they're close to an agreement on that would give the program about $300 billion in fresh funds. The government program, which is overseen by the Treasury and administered by the Small Business Administration, limits loan recipients to businesses with fewer than 500 employees and revenue of less than $2.5 billion. But it makes an exception for restaurants and other food service businesses that employ fewer than 500 people per location, meaning that restaurant chains are as eligible for the loans as a neighborhood restaurant or bar. The small business lending program is part of the $2.2 trillion rescue package approved by Congress last month. Advertisement

Executives reported internally that AutoNation's western division received $79million while the eastern division received $15million.

More than 81 locations received loan money, including $4.6million given to the Audi dealership in Bellevue Washington and $2.7million for a Toyota Mall location in Georgia.

Cannon said that the company 'was clearly eligible and applied on behalf of the 7,000 employees furloughed caused by the COVID-19 crisis.'

'AutoNation intended to rehire all 7,000 associates under the PPP program as encouraged by the government and designed to get individuals back to work,' Cannon added. 'From the beginning, AutoNation decided that all PPP funds would be used only for our employees and nothing else.'

In the Thursday board vote, Cannon said that it was decided 'to cancel all PPP applications and return all PPP funds by the safe harbor date of May 7th.'

Under the $2trillion Cares Act economic stimulus package, separate affiliates of a corporation could apply for the small-business funds independently.

The Small Business Administration asked companies that were well-funded to consider returning the loans by May 7.

'Small businesses don't have investors or millions in cash and credit to weather this storm,' one company employees said. 'AutoNation could have made it through without taking these loans out.'

The publicly held firm has 26,000 employees across 18 states, but used separate tax identification numbers assigned to the locations to apply for at least $266million in funds for separate dealerships

These included Jaguar and Land Rover Bethesda, Prosche Orlando and Lexus of Cerritos (pictured)

Executives reported internally that AutoNation's western division received $79million while the eastern division received $15

The funds were designated to help companies that had fewer than 500 employees that are unable to obtain credit.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law a $484 billion economic measure designed to give additional relief to small businesses feeling the squeeze from the coronavirus.

The AutoNation employee said that the company received 'an obscene amount for any company to take out of this fund that was intended to help keep our communities intact.

An AutoNation general manager, also speaking anonymously, said it was 'disappointing that a large publicly traded company can cloak itself in these different entities so that it can reach out and grab these millions of dollars.'

He also shared that all decisions had been made by executives, adding that 'none of us at the store level had any idea that we were applying for this money. That was all done at the corporate level.'

'That's left these mom-and-pop retailers, restaurants, barbershops, day-care centers, so that they can't get money because the swift attorneys at companies of our size can swoop in and get this money and they can't. I just find it appalling. I don't think that was the intent of the money,' the general manager stated.

WHAT'S IN THE $484 BILLION CORONAVIRUS RELIEF BILL? The House passed the emergency interim relief package Thursday night after the Senate finally came to an agreement on the legislation and moved it through the upper chamber Tuesday afternoon. Heres where the $484 billion is going: $320 billion for Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program - $125 billion of that will go to the minority and women-owned businesses and 'little mom-and-pop stores' that don't have a good banking connections $30 billion to increase production and distribution of coronavirus tests - $11 billion of that will go to the states to boost testing at a local-level $75 billion for hospitals $60 billion for the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program

Any remaining funds will go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies supporting coronavirus mitigation Advertisement

AutoNation has undergone some leadership change. Chief executive Cheryl Miller took a leave of absence earlier in the month and was replaced by Chairman Mike Jackson. On Wednesday, the company named Jim Bender as the new president.

While refusing to release a list of companies that all received loans under the PPP, the administration has said that the PPP provided funding to more than 1.6million small businesses in all 50 states. 74 per cent of the loans were for amounts under $150,000.

More than 80 publicly traded companies have reported receiving the PPP money - excluding AutoNation.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.