A major U.S. trucking company called Yellow Corp that received $700 million in taxpayer funds during the pandemic has now declared bankruptcy, leaving taxpayers on the hook and likely spiking prices on a range of goods.
The Nashville-based company filed for bankruptcy Sunday, which cost 30,000 jobs.
The company, which was nearly 100 years old, blamed recent union negotiations, saying it kept the company from making payments and revamping the business.
The company, though, has struggled for decades. In 2020, it received $700 million via a taxpayer-funded loan during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a federal program to keep businesses afloat through the lockdowns.
That loan has been under scrutiny as far back as 2021, when the then Democrat-led House launched an inquiry into the sizable federal payment.
Yellow is also one of multiple shipping companies sued by the federal government for allegedly overcharging the Department of Defense for shipments.
“Knowingly overcharging the government is an affront to American taxpayers, and the Department of Justice will seek to ensure that those who engage in such misconduct are held accountable,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division said in a DOJ press release on the matter in 2018.