Bookstore owned Oregon Sen. Wyden’s wife to pay nearly $1.5M after wrongly receiving pandemic loan

The New York City-based Strand Book Store, owned by the wife of U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, has agreed to pay the federal government nearly $1.5 million after it received funding from a pandemic-era loan program that was specifically designed not to offer money to the business of members of Congress and their spouses.

Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020 to help businesses, contractors and and certain nonprofits help stay afloat and keep their workers on the payroll during the pandemic. The initial loan program didn’t exclude businesses owned by members of Congress or their immediate families, and the $1.7 million loan Nancy Bass Wyden’s New York-based Strand Book Store received was among many similar loans granted to such businesses.

But a December 2020 law expanding the program explicitly barred businesses from obtaining that second round of funding if a member of Congress or their spouse had a significant direct or indirect stake in the business. Bass Wyden’s bookstore received more than $930,000 in the second round despite the law, according to Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

“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 in a statement.

Bass Wyden certified at the time that she met the qualifications necessary to obtain the loan, a move Pirro’s office described as “knowingly and materially false.”

Bass Wyden in a statement said that federal laws and regulations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic were “changing rapidly.” She said her bookstore’s accountant and the bank administering the loan were not aware of the new rules surrounding spouses “when the second-draw application was processed.”

“The mistake was unintentional, and the funds were returned as soon as the issue came to our attention. We regret the oversight and recognize the importance of complying with all applicable laws and regulations,” she wrote. “We hope this matter will be viewed objectively and in its proper context, with the understanding that the application of justice should always be fair, impartial and free from political considerations.”

Hank Stern, a spokesperson for the senator, said in a brief statement that Wyden and his wife do not discuss Bass Wyden’s business and that he had no involvement in the loan or agreement with the federal government.