Class Action Claims Capital Plus Financial Failed to Fund Approved PPP Loans

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A proposed class action alleges Capital Plus Financial, LLC and parent company Crossroads Systems, Inc. have failed to fund approved Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in violation of CPF’s contracts with borrowers.

According to the 34-page lawsuit, CPF, a certified community development financial institution that purports to “serv[e] the Hispanic community in the state of Texas,” processed the second-highest number of PPP loans of any lender in 2021 and more than the total number of PPP loans processed by Bank of America, PNC Bank, TD Bank and Wells Fargo combined for that year. Despite generating a reported $930 million in PPP fees in 2021, CPF, the lawsuit alleges,  failed to actually fund borrowers’ loans after they’d been approved by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

The lawsuit explains that the U.S. government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020 in order to help Americans affected by the pandemic. The Paycheck Protection Program was established under the CARES Act to provide forgivable loans backed by the SBA to small businesses to be used for payroll costs, mortgages, rent and utilities, the case relays. Per the suit, certain private lenders, including CPF, were approved by the SBA to process and fund PPP loans, for which they would receive fees from the SBA in return. The Economic Aid Act in December 2020 increased fees for loans of less than $50,000 to 50 percent or $2,500, whichever is less, the case adds.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants, considering the demand for PPP loans of less than $50,000 and the guaranteed fee of at least $2,500 for each loan, seized on an opportunity to generate “enormous amounts” of lender fees by booking small PPP loans. Per the case, CPF or Crossroads contracted with startup Blue Acorn PPP, LLC or its affiliate FinCap, Inc. to identify borrowers to whom CPF could offer PPP program loans.

The case claims CPF, at the direction of Crossroads, “exploited the increased fees” for small loans by agreeing to fund 472,036 PPP loans, totaling over $7.5 billion in proceeds, in 2021. The suit alleges that Crossroads insiders received a special payout in July 2021 as a result of the company’s “overcapitaliz[ation]” and that Crossroads’ fiscal year revenues increased 2,446 percent compared to the same period in 2020. Moreover, CPF received $6.4 billion in advances from the Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility in 2021 alone in order to fund PPP loans, the suit says.

The lawsuit alleges, however, that the defendants never actually paid out the loan proceeds to borrowers despite reporting to the SBA that the loans had been funded. The plaintiff, an Arkansas resident who provides insurance inspection services, claims to have applied and been approved for a $15,665 PPP loan with CPF yet never received any funds. The suit alleges that many other borrowers have similarly been denied their PPP funds, to the point that CPF issued a notice in which it told customers that harassing and intimidating communications would result in the withdrawal of their loans.

The lawsuit looks to cover persons or entities in the U.S. who, in 2021, timely applied for a PPP loan with CPF and had their loans approved by the SBA but never received their loan proceeds.

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