North County Daily Stars staff member sat down with Darrell Issa Candidate for the 50th Congressional District. The following is a rebuttal to what his opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is saying in his campaign Ads.
The Congressional race between former Congressman Darrell Issa and Ammar Campa-Najjar for the 50th District Congressional seat, vacated by Duncan Hunter, is heating up as November 3rd fast approaches. Television ads for both candidates have increased in the last few weeks and one current ad, put out by the Campa-Najjar campaign committee, asserts that Mr. Issa used funds from a PPP business loan from the Federal government as a source of revenue for his current political campaign. Mr. Issa vehemently denies this accusation and says the assertion is not based on any factual information.
In a sit-down interview with Mr. Issa and Rich Hirshberg, Chief Financial Officer of Greene Properties, Inc. the details of the PPP loan and its use were discussed. Greene Properties is a privately owned real estate management company owned by Mr. Issa. The company owns and manages several office buildings, industrial buildings, and a private charter school, primarily in the San Diego area. At the beginning of the COVID crisis in March, Federal PPP loans became available for small business to make applications. Because the funds, initially designed for PPP loans were initially distributed through major banks and were allocated in a matter of days, Greene Properties and Mr. Hirschberg did not get an application submitted for the initial allocation. They did, however, make an application on May 7th, when additional Federal money was offered again. Greene Properties was awarded a $150,000 PPP. The money awarded was used for salaries and office space rent at Greene Properties. Mr. Issa is not on the payroll of this company. The money came in the form of a wire transfer directly to the Greene Properties bank account. On Greene Properties bank account financial sheets, the payment listing for the use of the money for salaries clearly indicates the money going out for individual employee salaries and rent, Mr. Issa’s name is not listed on any of these payouts. There is no indication Mr. Issa touched or managed any of the PPP loan money.
What has come into question is a transfer of funds from Green Properties to Mr. Issa’s personal account, which occurs under normal circumstances since the founding of Greene Properties. In a written statement from Mr. Hirschberg, he indicated transfers of $400,000 occurred on February 4th, $400,000 on May 7th and $700,000 on September 1st. The two aforementioned $400,000 transfers were transferred prior to the PPP awarding Greene Properties their $150,000 loan. The transfer of funds from Greene Properties are made to partially fund Federal and State tax payments that result in part from profits made at Greene Properties, but are taxed at the individual level per the Federal and State tax codes. The reason for transferring money from this company to Mr. Issa’s personal account is due to the tax code that requires the income from Greene Properties get reported on the Issa’s personal return and all payments therefore be made to the IRS from their personal account. Mr. Issa paid $1,450,000 in Federal taxes on July 13, 2020 and additional $750,000 on September 14, 2020 for 2020 estimated taxes and to the Franchise Tax board a $575,000 amount was paid on July 14, 2020, also for 2020 estimated taxes. Also made available was an Expense Account Vendor Summary of all charitable donations made by the Issa Family foundation and nowhere on the sheet did a $150,000 donation appear for any of the 37 listings.
Mr. Issa has transferred as much as $3 million from his personal bank account to run his present campaign and none of this money has come from any transfer of funds from Greene Properties PPP loan. He stated that “any news agency can have access to any document they would like to see and our books are open to set the record straight about any questions you may have about our accounts and the PPP loan”. Mr. Issa said he has made several overtures to the San Diego Union Tribune to come in for an interview, since an article appeared in the paper, but he has not heard back from them, including a phone call he made during the interview. After this reporter left the offices, KUSI was arriving to interview Mr. Issa, which should appear soon on T.V.
Mr. Issa said he wanted to make it clear that the political ad on T.V. was misleading and was based on totally false information and the voting public should be allowed to know the facts so they can make correctly informed voting decisions. Mr. Issa said, “I am proud that in my 40 plus years as a small business owner, I have never once laid off a worker. During the pandemic, I sent my workers home with pay. My opponent has invented a false conspiracy theory to disparage not only me, but everyone at Greene Properties. Campa-Najjar has never been an employer and doesn’t understand what it’s like to try and keep a business afloat during an economic crisis.”
