Six companies contacted by CNBC who took the loans said they had no plans to return the funds.
But the rule change, and public outrage, has forced some of the smaller public companies who've received the loans to face a key question. Return the Paycheck Protection Program loans and recoup public image? Or keep the funds and potentially prevent layoffs down the road?, a subsidiary of a Japanese restaurant chain, said that after much deliberation and angst that it chose to cancel its $5.98 million federal small-business loan.
"Today, we made the decision to return our PPP loan," he added. "This was a difficult decision because our employees are extremely important to us, but it's impossible to ignore the fact that our finances allow us to weather financial hardship for a longer period than independent restaurant owners." "We are hopeful that both the money returned to Treasury by Optinose and other companies and the additional $320 billion stimulus passed by Congress this week will facilitate relief for a larger number of small businesses, including many of the physician practices we serve," a spokesman said.But others, such as Digimarc's Davis, defended their application and receipt of the PPP funds.
But between those public companies who said they'd return the PPP funds and those who said they won't, all said they wished the SBA and Treasury Department could have been clearer on which companies qualified when first announcing the program.
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