Planet Hollywood sues Florida bank in alleged PPP fraud
Planet Hollywood and its affiliated companies are suing Miami-based BankUnited over roughly $6 million in Paycheck Protection Program debt, claiming that it should have been forgiven under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
In a lawsuit filed last week, the restaurant chain claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic-era economic stimulus would have saved at least $4.5 million 'but for the fraud, negligence, and misrepresentations of BankUnited.'
The plaintiffs and Planet Hollywood International applied for and received a consolidated PPP loan of more than $7 million, which was funded April 20, 2020. The following month, BankUnited allegedly forced the plaintiffs to abandon the original loan and enter separate loan agreements for each entity with different federal Employer Identification Numbers. BankUnited claimed this was necessary to comply with the Small Business Administration's May 4, 2020, interim final rule.
However, the lawsuit contends that the rule did not apply retroactively to loans disbursed before April 30, 2020. The restructured loans fell under the rule's $20 million single corporate group cap called the corporate group limitation, making them ineligible for forgiveness.
Moreover, BankUnited allegedly earned more than $125,000 in additional loan origination fees by forcing the creation of seven new separate loans.
Planet Hollywood now owes the Florida lender $6 million for allegedly mishandling PPP loans. However, around $4.5 million of the loan would have been forgiven if not for BankUnited's alleged 'fraud' and 'negligence,' the lawsuit claimed.
'But for BankUnited's misrepresentations, fraud, false statements, coercion, threats, and misconduct in forcing Plaintiffs to reapply for PPP loans it claimed violated the [rule] mandates despite the rule's plain and unambiguous language, Plaintiffs' Original Loan would have qualified for forgiveness by the SBA,' according to the lawsuit. 'Instead, due to BankUnited's actions, Plaintiffs are left with millions of dollars in debt.'
Further, the plaintiffs alleged that BankUnited had more knowledge and expertise than Planet Hollywood regarding banking, the CARES Act and PPP, and access to information and SBA staff.
The companies are suing BankUnited over fraudulent misrepresentation and negligence.
Planet Hollywood is seeking full compensation for unforgiven loans and accumulated interest that the plaintiffs are obligated to repay in connection with their PPP loans that would have been forgiven, as well as any other remedies the court deems appropriate.
Planet Hollywood, for its part, has faced financial challenges throughout its existence. In 1999, it applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing revenue loss. In 2000, it exited Chapter 11 with a reorganization plan and applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again in October 2001. In April 2025, PB Restaurants, the operator of Planet Hollywood restaurants in New York City's Times Square and Los Angeles International Airport, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The LAX location permanently closed in April. As of May 2025, three Planet Hollywood restaurants remain operational.
Recommended Reading
Bank trade groups blast SBA's fintech proposal
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
CFOs On the Move: Week ending July 11
This story was originally published on To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily newsletter. Wendy's chief financial officer, , was named interim CEO of the fast food chain. He will take on the role on July 18 and will remain in the CFO seat. Cook joined Wendy's as CFO in Dec. 2024 after spending 20 years at United Parcel Service. At UPS, he was most recently head of financial planning and analysis and was earlier chief financial officer of its $60 billion U.S. domestic segment. Cook replaces Kirk Tanner, who is leaving the company to become president and CEO of The Hershey Company. OpenText's CFO, , is leaving the company to become president and CEO of Canadian financial services firm EQB following the unexpected passing of its longtime CEO, Andrew Moor. In March this year, Westlake left his role as CFO of EQB to join cloud and AI company OpenText. He will rejoin his former employer on Aug. 25. Cosmin Balota, OpenText's senior vice president and chief accounting officer, will serve as interim CFO while the company searches for Westlake's successor. Balota joined OpenText in 2019 and has over 30 years of experience. Semiconductor company Wolfspeed named as its new finance chief, effective September 1. Van Issum's appointment comes as the company navigates a restructuring after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 30. Since 2018, van Issum has worked at the light and sensor solutions company ams-OSRAM, where he has held various roles, including executive vice president, group controller, and chief transformation and performance officer. He previously served as vice president of strategy for NXP Semiconductors' secure transactions and identification solutions segment and CFO of the secure identification solutions and analog mixed-signal units. Van Issum succeeds interim CFO Kevin Speirits, who will remain with the company to help with the transition. was named chief financial officer of Sinclair, a diversified media company and a leading provider of local news and sports. Before joining Sinclair, Sahai was CFO at leisure and hospitality operator Arcis, and before that, chief financial officer of omnichannel powersports platform RumbleOn. His earlier roles include head of worldwide go-to-market finance for compute and AI/machine learning services at Amazon's AWS and senior vice president, treasurer, and investor relations at Target Hospitality. Sahai succeeds Lucy Rutishauser, who is stepping down as CFO but will remain as an executive vice president to support the transition. After her retirement later this year, she will take on the role of senior adviser. is the new finance chief of convenience store operator EG Group. Segal will be based in the U.S., the U.K.-based company's largest market by revenue. He joins the company from the global children's entertainment business Spin Master, where he held the CFO role for 20 years in two different stretches before retiring in May. At Spin Master, he was part of the team that led its IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2015. He was earlier vice president of finance and CFO for Husky Injection Moulding Systems, an injection moulding machinery and equipment manufacturer. Segal succeeds Russell Colaco, who was promoted to EG Group's CEO in April. Ogilvy's global chief financial officer, , has left the U.K.-based advertising agency to take the same role at public relations and communications firm Burson. Ryan Cornelius first joined Ogilvy & Mather in 1999 as senior partner, director of financial planning for North America and rejoined in her most recent role in Jan. 2021. Between her stints at Ogilvy, she was CFO of WPP Health & Wellness and global chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Geometry Global. The Women's Tennis Association appointed as its chief financial officer. Withington joins the WTA from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, where she has served as CFO since 2018. Beginning in 2022, she also held roles as deputy director and interim chief operating officer. Before that, Withington was the chief financial officer and executive vice president of operations at Mystic Seaport Museum, where she worked for over 10 years. She also previously worked at Viacom and several of its subsidiaries, including MTV Networks, where she was senior vice president for finance, and the Nickelodeon Network, where she was the head of finance. Native search advertising firm AdMarketplace hired as its new finance chief. Most recently, Curry served as global CFO of marketing service provider Rakuten Advertising. She previously held CFO positions at creative agency BBDO Worldwide; IPG Mediabrands, the media and marketing solutions division of Interpublic Group; and Broadwind, a precision manufacturer for clean tech and other specialized applications. Curry also spent over 11 years at Live Nation Entertainment, most recently as vice president of finance. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gen Z men are still obsessed with Pokémon cards—using ‘boy math' to argue that they'll beat Nvidia stock and the S&P 500. But there's a catch
Pokémon and sports trading cards are outperforming the S&P 500 with upwards of 46% annual returns, and it's driving mania among Gen Z and Millennial men to collect top cards. While most fans aren't getting rich off a reselling side gig, there's no sign the boom is letting up—especially with big names like Logan Paul joining in on the frenzy. Gen Z and Millennials are in agreement: their obsession with Pokémon may never let up. Despite the Japanese franchise nearing its 30-year anniversary, young men in particular continue to be on a lifelong mission to 'catch 'em all'—and are spending hundreds, sometimes even millions of dollars, collecting trading cards. Part of the 'boy math' is that investing in cards could yield significant returns, and there might be some truth to the matter. Pokémon cards have seen the largest long-term increase in value among all card categories: up 3,261% over 20 years, according to data provided to Fortune from Card Ladder. Even looking at a one-year investment, the average Pokémon card is increasing at nearly 46%—a pace far exceeding hot stocks like Nvidia so far in 2025 or the S&P 500's average 12% annual return rate. While cards have to be rare and in pristine condition to make significant profit, the industry frenzy has left the shelves of retailers like Walmart and Target bare—and even caused some stores to enact limits or pauses on selling altogether. And online, it's pushing the resale market to new heights. Users on eBay searched for 'Pokemon' nearly 14,000 times per hour in 2024, according to Adam Ireland, VP and GM of global collectibles at eBay. And pairing the Pokémania with continued demand in the sports card world (thanks to athletes like Caitlin Clark and Michael Jordan), it's created a perfect storm of opportunity for the trading card industry. The total gross value of cards on eBay has increased for nine consecutive quarters. This embedded content is not available in your region. 'The trading card hobby has entered a new era, driven by technology, innovation, community, and a great balance of modern creativity–with new sets, storylines and characters–alongside good old nostalgia,' Ireland tells Fortune. No other influencer may have driven continued interest in Pokémon cards in particular than Logan Paul. The YouTuber, who is also known for his ventures into professional wrestling, boxing, and entrepreneurship, has spent millions of dollars purchasing cards—and then profiting off the millions of views generated from his content. 'Nostalgia + business = the new art,' he wrote on social media after spending $200,000 on cards. 'These things are appreciating like crazy as collectibles are becoming very low supply, high demand art pieces.' Logan Paul wearing a Charizard Pokemon card chain as he entered the ring for a 2021 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. In 2022, he broke a Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pokémon trading card sold at a private sale with the purchase of a PSA Grade 10 (essentially perfect condition) Pikachu Illustrator card for $5.275 million. 'This card cost me more than my ranch. My 84-acre ranch,' Paul said at the time. Other social platforms, including TikTok, are full of content creators who have dedicated their lives to the purchasing, opening, and reselling of cards. But for some, the joy of collecting or making a profit doesn't work out as much as planned, with a recent call into Dave Ramsey's personal finance vodcast showing just how bad the obsession is gotten for some young men. 'I messed up big. I went behind my pregnant wife's back and racked up $26K in credit card debt in four months,' the caller said. 'What did you jack up $26K on?' Ramey asked. 'Pokemon cards—trying to buy a bunch and sell them online, but it didn't work out.' Like other collectables, trading cards can be considered a 'commodity' and even art, according to Jason Howarth, SVP of marketing and athlete relations at Panini America, a sports card company. But whether to consider it a true investment opportunity depends largely on your intentions. 'For some people, they (collect) because they view it as an investment. Others do it for the pure fun of it,' he says. By and large, most collectors are not going so off the deep end and being overly financially irresponsible, and instead see the hobby as a guilty pleasure. That includes Ryan Hoge, the president of PSA, one of the biggest companies that evaluates the condition and authenticity of trading cards. He said he personally has tens of thousands of cards, but like many, he enjoys collecting them, even if they are stored up in a closet. 'I think sometimes people want to break from the digital, and this is a good outlet for it,' Hoge tells Fortune. And not only do you get to hold something in your hand, but you also get to interact with a community of like minded people that have similar interests.' Last month, nearly 125,000 fans attended Fanatics' (which owns trading card company Topps) second annual convention centered around all things sports and collectibles. And the event notably saw influencer and former gymnast Livvy Dunne purchase a card of her professional baseball player boyfriend for $2,850. The National Sports Collectors Convention, which also brings over 100,000 fans, is set for later this summer outside of Chicago. While the trading card industry was on the brink of extinction following overproduction in the 1990s, it's since recovered and is booming. Sports cards bring in $1 billion in annual revenue for manufacturers and retailers, according to The Athletic. Pokémon alone brought in a similar number, and was the only toy to surpass $1 billion in sales last year, says Circana data. And even though over 75 billion Pokémon cards have been produced (enough to wrap around Earth end-to-end 165 times), demand is still skyhigh, according to Barry Sams, vice president of game development and community engagement at The Pokémon Company International. 'With explosion in demand, we're printing at maximum capacity to deliver the greatest amount of cards possible to fans for current expansions while ensuring we maintain quality standards,' he tells Fortune. 'Those who grew up with Pokémon now have children of their own to share that passion with, and oftentimes, that means revisiting old Pokémon card collections and recreating fond childhood memories as a parent.' The opportunity within the card industry is causing retailers like GameStop to pay greater attention. The electronics store said in the first quarter of 2025, collectibles, such as Pokémon and sports cards, made up 29% of the company's sales—outselling video game software. 'We're focusing on trading cards as a natural extension of our existing business,' GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said at the company's annual shareholder meeting last month. 'The trading card market, whether it's sports, Pokémon or collectibles, is aligned with our heritage. It fits our trade and model. It appeals to our core customer base. And it's deeply embedded in physical retail.' The industry continues to fascinate even world leaders. During this year's Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, President Donald Trump was seen with a graded trading card that depicted the assassination attempt on him last year. And in a recent meeting with a young student, Pope Leo XIV didn't shy away from the trading card frenzy and was more than happy to sign a 'Popplio' Pokemon card. 'It doesn't matter how old you are, when you get a pack of cards in your hand, the first thing you want to do is rip it open and you hope that you're going to get that hot rookie, or you're going to get a player from your favorite team,' says Panini's Howarth. 'If any one of those things happens, you're ecstatic.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bear of the Day: DXC Technology (DXC)
DXC Technology (DXC) has struggled to gain traction in recent years, as persistent revenue declines and a sluggish business transformation have weighed heavily on both its fundamentals and its stock price. Once a major player in IT services, the company has seen its sales fall steadily, leading to stagnation and underperformance in a sector that's otherwise full of innovation and growth. The stock has dropped nearly 30% year-to-date and is down more than 65% since 2021, reflecting a prolonged period of investor disappointment. Analyst sentiment has continued to deteriorate as well, pushing DXC down to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) rating. While management has laid out a strategy to pivot away from legacy infrastructure services and toward higher-growth digital and cloud offerings, the turnaround has been slow to materialize. There may be potential in the longer term, but for now, the company remains in a difficult position. Until investors see clear signs of stabilization and renewed growth, DXC is a stock best left on the sidelines. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research DXC Technology's prolonged decline in revenue continues to be a major overhang for the stock. Annual sales have dropped significantly—from approximately $22 billion in 2018 to just $12.8 billion over the trailing twelve months, a nearly 42% decline that reflects the company's struggle to transition away from its legacy business model. Unfortunately, the outlook doesn't suggest a turnaround is imminent. Analysts expect revenue to decline another 4.5% in the current fiscal year, followed by an additional 2.8% decline next year, indicating that demand for DXC's core offerings remains under pressure despite management's transformation efforts. Adding to the bearish case, analyst sentiment around profitability has worsened. Over the past 60 days, consensus earnings estimates have been revised downward—current year EPS estimates have fallen by 7.9%, while next year's projections have dropped by 9.3%. This steady erosion of expectations signals broad skepticism among analysts and institutional investors about the company's near-term ability to stabilize or grow earnings. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Technical weakness is compounding DXC Technology's fundamental challenges, with selling pressure intensifying in recent sessions. On Friday, the stock was hit particularly hard, closing sharply lower with bearing mometnum pickin up. Shares are now hovering just above a critical support level near $14.20. If DXC fails to hold this level, it could trigger a technical breakdown, opening the door to another wave of selling. A decisive move below this support zone would confirm the downtrend and could send the stock cascading to new multi-year lows. With no strong bullish catalysts in sight, the path of least resistance appears to be lower unless a significant reversal develops soon. Image Source: TradingView Given its declining fundamentals, weakening technical setup, and continued negative analyst sentiment, DXC remains a high-risk name with limited near-term upside. Until the company proves it can stabilize revenue and execute its transformation strategy more effectively, investors are likely better off staying on the sidelines. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report DXC Technology Company. (DXC) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
