This Shady Company Got a Coronavirus Relief Loan. Its Largest Shareholder Is Brad Parscale.
CloudCommerce, a company with a close relationship with Donald Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale, received $780,680 from the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the federal government’s effort to protect small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the company’s executives having been sued for or pled guilty to fraud charges, Parscale nevertheless engineered a financial relationship with the outfit that left him owning a significant portion of its stock.
When Parscale was plucked from obscurity to run Trump’s 2016 digital operation, he was the joint owner of a marketing firm in San Antonio. Following the campaign’s success, Parscale and his business partner split their firm and sold both halves to CloudCommerce. Parscale also sold a second firm he controlled to CloudCommerce. ProPublica reported last year that he hoped the company’s association with his name would boost its stock price, netting him far more than the reported $10 million that he earned as part of the sale. Parscale joined the company’s board and became heavily invested in the company. He moved to Florida and opened his current firm, Parscale Strategy, directing some business back to his old firm at CloudCommerce.
But Parscale had joined forces with a company with a troubled track record, and the expected windfall never came. In 2019, according to an April filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, CloudCommerce’s net losses totaled over $10 million. In December, Parscale stepped down from the company’s board. Most of the $10 million he made selling his company was ultimately paid in the form of generally worthless penny stock, which he still holds.
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