Barbra Streisand's film company pocketed $200K in small business pandemic cash - and paid gardener at her $20M mansion

[useapen]

Barbra Streisand’s film company, which pays the groundskeeper at her $20
million mansion, got $200,000 in PPP money intended to help small
businesses make payroll written off, The Post has learned.

The multimillionaire star’s Barwood Films Ltd. received loans from the
Paycheck Protection Program in 2020 and 2021 — then had them written off
by the federal government.

Among the workers paid through Barwood Films in 2020 and 2021 was a
groundskeeper responsible for the gardens at her $20 million Malibu
clifftop home — where the business is registered — and an “executive
support” employee.

Her spokesman claimed Streisand’s gardener had not been paid with taxpayer
funds. The Post has confirmed that the groundskeeper was employed by
Barwood Films when it took public money to make payroll.

Streisand, 81, is worth $430 million, according to Forbes. She has long
been known for her lavish living, even having a replica antique shopping
mall in her Malibu clifftop home.

The mall is in the basement of the eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion,
itself valued at at least $20 million, and whose gardens have been called
“an idyllic oasis” by Homes & Gardens. There are 3,000 rose bushes alone.

The English-style garden and manicured lawns have featured extensively on
her Instagram. They include a lovingly tended gravesite for Samantha, her
beloved pet Coton de Tulear, who died in 2017 and whom she had cloned,
giving her Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett.

In 2020, Streisand’s production company qualified as a “small business”
for the taxpayer-funded assistance — which was intended to prevent mass
unemployment by keeping small businesses afloat.

On April 7, 2020, four days after the Small Business Administration opened
applications for loans for the program, Barwood Films Ltd., was approved
for $103,662, which it said was for six workers.

Six days later, Streisand tweeted her anger at then-President Donald Trump
for his handling of the COVID crisis, saying money he had spent on a
border wall should be spent on “testing, ventilators and personal
protective equipment for our health care professionals.”

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/barbrastreisand-
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The next year, her film company received $103,127, saying it would protect
six people on its payroll.

Companies that spent at least 60% of the PPP check on payroll and did not
cut workers’ pay could apply to have their loans forgiven, along with any
interest accrued on them.

Barwood Films did that, meaning it netted $209,069 from the taxpayer-
funded bailout. PPP recipients could spend up to 40% on utilities,
essential purchases, protective equipment and rent.

Almost all PPP loans have been forgiven: Out of $793 billion issued, the
SBA has written off $762 billion.

At the time of the loans, one of Barwood’s employees listed her job as
“executive support,” a role she had previously held for Bette Midler. A
former Barwood employee from years before the pandemic detailed their
duties as “personal errands” for Streisand.

Barwood, which produced films such as “A Star Is Born” in 1976, “Yentl” in
1983 and “The Prince of Tides” in 1991, last produced “Barbra: The Music,
the Memoirs, the Magic” in 2017.

Since then, Streisand released a new album and in 2022, a best-selling
memoir, “My Name is Barbra.”

Public records show Barwood is registered to the office of money manager
Lester Knispel, who is also assistant secretary of the Barbra Streisand
Foundation.

His Boulevard Management manages money for Kardashian family members and
Sylvester Stallone, among others. Calls and an email to Boulevard
Management were not returned.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/12/entertainment/barbra-streisands-firm-got-
200000-ppp-cash-paid-gardener/