DOJ extracts $1.5M from bookstore as Senator's wife accused of 'exploiting' Trump program

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it secured a nearly $1.5 million settlement from a bookstore owned by a Senator's wife after it accused the business of exploiting a program created by President Donald Trump.

U.S. Attorney Jenaine Pirro, a former Fox News host, said that New York City-based bookstore Strand Book Store, Inc. had agreed to pay back $1,482,560 because it illegally received a second draw from the Paycheck Protection Program, a Covid-19 era program that the first Trump administration created to help businesses keep their employees during the global pandemic. Pirro said in a news release that the business was ineligible for a second draw because Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-OR) wife, Nancy Bass Wyden, owns it.

“The Paycheck Protection Program was created to save American jobs, not to enrich those who aren’t eligible for taxpayer-funded relief, especially the wife of a U.S. Senator,” Pirro said. “... Our Fraud and Asset Recovery Division will expose this abuse, pursue those who exploit taxpayer dollars, and hold them accountable. No one gets a pass when it comes to defrauding the American taxpayer.”

Like many bookstores across America, Strand fell on hard times during the pandemic. A 2020 report from Business Insider notes that the business's revenue shrank by 70% year-over-year during the first year of COVID. In response, the business received a PPP loan of between $1 million and $2 million, according to the report, even though several employees remained jobless after the loan was received.

Some employees accused Bass Wyden of playing "an Oliver Twist routine" because she was begging for help at a time when she and her husband held a large investment portfolio, which included the building her business was in and at least $150,000 in Amazon stock, according to Business Insider.

The settlement says that Strand Book Store applied for more than $932,000 in relief in its second PPP application, which also required Bass Wyden to certify that no other member of her family had a controlling interest in the business. The DOJ said Bass Wyden's certifications on the application were "materially false."