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was made to avoid a protracted and costly legal case. In 2019, majority owner and former CEO Luke Hillier settled for another $20 million, again without admitting any wrongdoing.

The Paycheck Protection Program, quickly introduced in March in an attempt to stem an economic downfall because of coronavirus-caused shutdowns, has so far approved more than 5 million loans worth $521 billion total. While it certainly helped many small businesses survive, the program has been criticized for allowing large chains, publicly-traded companies and even celebrities to apply and be approved for millions of dollars in loans.

While the applications for the loans were a single page front-and-back, applicants have been required to self-certify that by applying, they are indeed a small business in size (with fewer than 500 employees) taking into account any affiliated companies that had also applied.

ADS Inc. has historically said it had more than 400 employees but fewer than 500.

Among other companies that applied for PPP loans that the U.S. Justice Department has linked to ADS as affiliates in the past are Tactical Distributors (also known as TDI LLC), which was approved for a PPP loan worth $350,000 to $1 million, and MJL Enterprises LLC, which was approved for a loan worth $150,000 to $350,000 loan.

ADS denied affiliation with MJL Enterprises in its earlier appeal to the Small Business Administration on its size. Without admitting any wrong-doing, that company agreed in 2017 to settle its case with the U.S. government, which said it falsely claimed to be an eligible service-disabled veteran-owned company, for $400,000. Copies of the settlement agreements obtained by The Pilot at the time indicated that Tactical Distributors was a subsidiary of ADS and ADS managed MJL.

ADS did not respond to questions from The Pilot for this report.