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The Lawsuit That Made SBA Publish EIDL Borrowers' Names, and Seven Other Civil Cases
News organizations won the loan data in November 2020. The two challenges to SBA's eligibility rules listed here were PPP cases, and the five EIDL borrower and servicing suits filed from 2022 to 2024 are all closed.
In May 2020 news organizations sued the Small Business Administration under the Freedom of Information Act for the borrower-level records of PPP and COVID EIDL. SBA withheld the data under FOIA's exemptions for confidential and private information. On November 5, 2020, in WP Company LLC v. SBA, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered SBA to release borrowers' names, addresses and loan amounts, and SBA released them in late 2020.1 EIDL fraud maps, PPP lender rankings and academic fraud-indicator studies all run on data that SBA did not want to publish and a judge made it publish.
The table below lists that case and seven other civil suits against SBA over EIDL and its eligibility rules, with dates from the federal dockets.2 Criminal EIDL prosecutions are left out. For EIDL's fraud figures, see Pandemic fraud estimates; for the EIDL processing contract, see The Six-Person Prime Contractor That Ran EIDL.
Three civil fights, eight cases
| Case | Court | Filed | Category | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WP Company LLC v. SBA | D.D.C. | 2020 | FOIA / data disclosure | Forced release of loan-level PPP/EIDL borrower data1 |
| AAPC v. SBA | D.D.C. | 2020 | Eligibility exclusion (political and lobbying businesses) | Injunction against the PPP exclusion denied, April 20203 |
| DV Diamond Club of Flint, LLC v. SBA | E.D. Mich. | 2020 | Eligibility exclusion (adult businesses) | PPP exclusion preliminarily enjoined; dismissed 20234 |
| Hyndman v. SBA | S.D.N.Y. | 2022 | Borrower / COVID EIDL | Closed 2024 |
| SEF SIM2018, LLC v. SBA | M.D. Fla. | 2022 | Borrower / COVID EIDL | Closed 2022 |
| Hand Up Ministries Inc. v. SBA | W.D. Okla. | 2023 | Borrower / COVID EIDL | Closed 2024 |
| Cashco Financial Services, Inc. v. SBA | D. Or. | 2022 | Servicing / COVID EIDL | Closed 2023 |
| Brandon Joe Williams v. SBA | C.D. Cal. | 2024 | Borrower / COVID EIDL | Pro se contract claim; dismissed 2024, affirmed 20255 |
"Closed" is the date the docket closed; it does not say who won. Where a court's ruling is known, the note gives it.
Who could borrow: both challenges were about PPP
SBA carried pre-pandemic rules about which businesses could borrow, and the pandemic programs inherited them. The two challenges to those rules on this list were brought over PPP loans.
In American Association of Political Consultants v. SBA, a trade group and a political consulting firm challenged the rule that makes businesses primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities ineligible. On April 21, 2020, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington denied a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. PPP loans, he wrote, "are, in effect, subsidies," and he found the plaintiffs unlikely to succeed on any of their three claims.3
Adult-entertainment venues challenged SBA's "prurient" exclusion. In DV Diamond Club of Flint, Judge Matthew Leitman of the Eastern District of Michigan held on May 11, 2020 that SBA had likely exceeded its statutory authority in applying the exclusion to PPP. He preliminarily enjoined it for the plaintiffs and intervenors. The Sixth Circuit refused to stay it on May 15.4 The case never reached a final judgment. The plaintiffs dismissed it in August 2023, and the Sixth Circuit dismissed SBA's appeal on a joint motion that October.4
The repayment suits
EIDL was sold as emergency relief. It is being administered, and litigated, as debt: a direct federal loan portfolio, much of it lent to very small businesses, now in long-term servicing and collection.
As the program moved from disbursement into repayment, borrowers began suing over servicing, collections, denials and account disputes. Hyndman, SEF SIM2018, Hand Up Ministries and Cashco Financial Services were filed in 2022 and 2023 and closed between 2022 and 2024; the docket index files Cashco as a servicing case. Brandon Joe Williams v. SBA began as a pro se contract claim in state court. SBA removed it, the district court dismissed it in December 2024, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed in July 2025.5
Notes
- WP Company LLC v. U.S. Small Business Administration, No. 1:20-cv-01240 (D.D.C.), filed May 2020. On November 5, 2020 the court ordered SBA to release the names, addresses and precise loan amounts of PPP and COVID EIDL borrowers (Memorandum Opinion, Doc. 23). That disclosure became the basis for later loan-level fraud studies and reporting. The case went on over loan data SBA found afterward: on July 15, 2021 the court upheld SBA's withholding of DUNS numbers and sent back its withholding of payment status and tax identification numbers (Memorandum Opinion, Doc. 49), and on December 13, 2021 it granted SBA summary judgment on those two (Memorandum Opinion, Doc. 57). ↩1 ↩2
- Federal court dockets on CourtListener (RECAP) for each case listed. Filing and termination dates are docket dates; termination marks docket closure, not outcome. Criminal EIDL prosecutions are not included. ↩
- American Association of Political Consultants v. U.S. Small Business Administration, No. 1:20-cv-00970-RCL (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion, Doc. 21 and Order denying a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, April 21, 2020. The rule is 13 C.F.R. § 120.110(r). ↩1 ↩2
- DV Diamond Club of Flint, LLC v. SBA, E.D. Mich. No. 4:20-cv-10899; Opinion and Order Granting Plaintiffs' and Intervenors' Motions for a Preliminary Injunction, ECF 42, May 11, 2020 (at 37, the plaintiffs showed "a substantial likelihood of success"; at 43, SBA "exceeded its statutory authority when it adopted the PPP Ineligibility Rule") (docket); stay denied, DV Diamond Club of Flint, LLC v. SBA, No. 20-1437, 960 F.3d 743 (6th Cir. May 15, 2020). Order dismissing case, Aug. 29, 2023, Source document; Sixth Circuit order dismissing appeal No. 20-1437 under Fed. R. App. P. 42(b), Oct. 18, 2023, Source document. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3
- Brandon Joe Williams v. SBA, No. 2:24-cv-09553 (C.D. Cal.), dismissed Dec. 30, 2024 (case filings); aff'd, No. 25-1808 (9th Cir. July 16, 2025) (order affirming); CourtListener docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69344443/brandon-joe-williams-v-united-states-small-business-administration/. ↩1 ↩2