 Companies with thousands of employees, past penalties from government investigations and risks of financial failure even before the coronavirus walloped the economy were among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses through the crisis, an Associated Press investigation found. The Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to infuse small businesses, which typically have less access to quick cash and credit, with 349 billion in emergency loans that could help keep workers on the job and bills paid on time. But at least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded, the AP found, and some had market values well over 100 million. And 25 of the companies had warned investors months ago while the economy was humming along that their ability to remain viable was in question. By combing through thousands of regulatory filings, the AP identified the 75 companies as recipients of a combined 300 million in low-interest, taxpayer-backed loans. Eight companies, or their subsidiaries, received the maximum 10 million possible, including a California software company that settled a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation late last year into accounting errors that overstated its revenue. The eight firms getting maximum loans are likely just a tip of the iceberg: Statistics released last week by the U.S. Small Business Administration showed that 4,400 of the approved loans exceeded 5 million. Overall, the size of the typical loan nationally was 206,000, according to the statistics. SBA will forgive the loans if companies meet certain benchmarks, such as keeping employees on payroll for eight weeks. The list of recipients identified by the AP is a fraction of the 1.6 million loans that lenders approved before the program was depleted last... 