18 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2020
LI COMPANIES JUMP THROUGH HOOPS FOR COVID-19 RELIEF
Richard Izzi, a partner in transaction
advisory services at Manhattan-based
Marcum LLP, which has large Melville
operations, says many companies
didn’t get loans the first time around
due to demand, regardless of amount.
He says many companies in the second
round often got funded “through
banks with which they didn’t have a
previous relationship.”
“They were overwhelmed,” he says
of banks, citing a $2 million loan not
obtained in the first round, but later
approved.
Big banks obtained the lion’s share
of Small Business Administration
(SBA) loans, including many smaller
ones. Still, numerous small business
representatives believe larger banks
prioritized larger loans with bigger
commissions per loan.
“Banks did what any prudent business
would do: Try to make as many large
loans as possible,” said Bencivenga.
The number of her business’s employees
initially dropped from 26 to 12 as
revenues fell by nearly half. “It’s more
effective from a business perspective
to administer fewer larger loans than
many small ones.”
The initial PPP $349 billion was
followed by $310 billion in funding,
including $30 billion for community
banks and small credit unions and
$30 million for medium-sized banks
and credit unions.
“For most other government regulated
programs, small business is defined
as up to 50 or 100,” Bencivenga
says. “PPP defined small business as
500 employees.”
Joseph Durko, managing director of
Melville-based Integrekon Partners,
helped dozens of companies get
funds, often with no help from their
primary banker.
He says a San Francisco-based
company got nowhere with Bank of
America, its banker, before he helped
the company obtain $600,000 through
Cache Valley Bank, in Utah.
“I believe larger institutions have favored
larger clients in underwriting,”
Durko says. “The larger the average
loan amount, the less work you have
to do to get to the same fee level.”
Durko says Wells Fargo told a
company the bank wouldn’t have
enough funding allocated to help,
even though the company applied
early.
He adds that City National Bank in
Beverly Hills helped Long Island
companies obtain loans; others credited
Bridgehampton-based BNB.
“The true SBA lenders were better
equipped to handle this,” Durko says,
noting PPP was run through the Small
Business Administration.
Anthony Buonaspina, CEO of LI Tech
Advisors in Babylon, says BNB got his
company a $135,000 forgivable loan.
“I decided to go through a local
bank that I didn’t even have an account
with,” he says of BNB. “They
worked their asses off and got my
company the funding it needed in
a few days.”
Bencivenga said Bank of America’s
list of business categories didn’t
even include restaurants or food and
beverage.
“They had hedge fund manager,
legal firm, financial services, and
construction,” she says. “There was
no restaurant or food service. I had
to pick ‘other.’”
PRESS BUSINESS
continued from page 17
“Owners looking for $125,000 or $75,000 didn’t
make any progress,” says Veronica Bencivenga.
LOVE IN THE AGE OF COVID 19
Sheltering in place has become the
new norm and families are being
forced to live together often in less
then ideal arrangements allowing
long simmering difficulties to often
boil over to the point of
incompatibility.
There has been multiple articles
trumpeting the upcoming tsunami of
divorce cases prompted by people
spending too much time together
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
" I want to obtain a divorce but I hear
the Courts are closed"?
The answer as of May 25 is yes
and no.
The New York State court system is
among the busiest in the world.
While many other jurisdictions have
transitioned entirely to electronic
case filing systems, New York has
not done so. E-filing is only available
in some counties and, as a result,
many cases, including matrimonial
cases, require hard copy filings of all
papers. Thus, New York courts have
never been in a position to operate
remotely on a full-scale basis, a
necessity now that social contact
and physical visits to the court
house have been widely curtailed.
Through a series of logical response
to the pandemic New York Courts
have gone from handling only
emergency matters, to opening the
court to filing motions in existing
matters to as of May 25 allowing
the filing of new matters, including
divorce cases.
The courts will now allow cases
originating in the down state areas
,ie NYC, Nassau , Suffolk Westchester
to be filed electronically by what is
known as ECF.
However the actual service of a
summons and complaint still must
be personally served within 120 Days
of filing unless opposing counsel
accepts service.
Pending cases, which were filed by
non electronic means requires
consent to electronically file through
the court systems Electronic
Document Delivery system ( EDDS )
Sound confusing?
Yes it is! And the need to retain
counsel in these family law cases
has never been more warranted.
But lets say you do file then what?
Well unless you already are living in
separate residences or have the
ability to do so after commencing a
new divorce case, will make an
uncomfortable situation even
more so.
One can only imagine sheltering in
place with a pending divorce action.
The bottom line is that in this age
of Covid 19 you can file for divorce
but consultation with a lawyer is a
must before deciding how to
proceed.
Jeffrey D. Lebowitz is a retired NYS
Supreme Court Justice who for
many years presided over the
Matrimonial term in Queens County.
He is presently Special Counsel at
Jaspan Schlesinger LLP. Retired
Justice Lebowitz is a executive
member of the New York State Bar
Association Family Law section and
a member of the Statewide
Matrimonial Practices committee.He
has been nominated by his peers as
a Super Lawyer in Family Law.
Jeffrey D. Lebowitz Esq.
He can be reached at
jlebowitz@jaspanllp.com or
(516) 746-8000.
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