Jacob Ogles
House candidate Jake Hoffman’s Instagram account shows he loves luxury cars, lavish vacations, and the rewards of success. Nothing wrong with that, but the fact his lifestyle stepped up in 2020 raises questions.
For example, why was his business pulling a Paycheck Protection Program loan at the peak of the pandemic? And were federal dollars meant to keep his payroll healthy also feeding his appetite for European sports cars?
Two days after Christmas in 2020, Hoffman took to Instagram to show off a birthday present to himself: an Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
“It’s probably not the best idea to stunt at the end of 2020 with all the pain and suffering across the world,” Hoffman acknowledged in the post. But sharing a rags-to-riches story, he discussed the importance of upgrading from a 1989 Cadillac El Dorado. He also notes since the successful companies he operated online — Hoffman co-founded Invasion Digital Media — pandemic conditions that closed down offices throughout the world had not his bottom line so hard.
“While 2020 has been tough on a lot of people, if you’ve spent the last decade fortifying, building and investing in multiple 100% digital companies, this year was actually pretty great, as taboo as that is to say,” he said.
That quote is from the story he told to media outlets when he announced his candidacy for Florida House District 65. His company partnered with athletes in the NFL and UFC, and while he could work from home on his computer, Hoffman said lockdowns that shut down gyms and sporting events in the country caused hits to the bottom line, blaming in part pandemic policies.
While new Aston Martin V8 Vantage would have cost upward of $142,000, Hoffman told Florida Politics his car is a 2008, and was purchased through a private transaction for $29,000. He said a Digital Credit Union loan on his financial disclosures is for that automobile.
On Twitter, he criticized Florida Politics over the story, stating, “Is this the same publication that faced multiple extortion charges after they write hit pieces? Clearly you’re looking for a new customer. I told you 6 months ago and I’ll say it again, I’m not paying you criminals.”
Actually, it was Hoffman who first reached out to Florida Politics about advertising.
More important than statements to the media, Hoffman also poor-mouthed the federal government. He sought a PPP loan in the first round of funding and received $217,767, an amount since completely forgiven. He requested funding to cover $180,000 in payroll, along with $20,000 in rent and $17,767 in utility costs for the business, according to a database maintained by ProPublica.
That doesn’t appear to be the only loan the company pulled. Invasion Digital Media operates under the corporate umbrella Hoffman Publishing, which also pulled a $233,750 loan in the second round of PPP funding. Again, the loan was fully forgiven, including interest. In the loan application, the funding sought the full amount to cover payroll expenses.
While the first loan was approved in April 2020, weeks after he posted pictures of a trip to Portugal but during very early and uncertain stages of the pandemic, the second installment won support in January 2021, after Hoffman boasts about the purchase of his sports car online and a month before he posted shirtless photos from a vacation to Puerto Rico.
But social media shows Hoffman’s lifestyle never slowed down. He was married in May in a wedding in front of an Irish castle and honeymooned in Monte Carlo and Saint Tropez.
Correction: A prior version of the story said Invasion Digital Media worked with sports leagues, as opposed to individual athletes.
19 comments
Anita Wright
July 15, 2022 at 2:15 pm
Jake’s got a fast car…is it fast enough so he can fly away?
Mark S Blum
July 15, 2022 at 7:44 pm
Buying a used car for $29,000 is hardly extravagant. Am I missing something?
Jake Hoffman
July 15, 2022 at 8:24 pm
Yea, they’re leaving out the part where I didn’t pay Florida Politics to not to write this article, but Karen Gonzalez Pittman did, so here we are. Do the readers know she drives a $100k car? Mine’s $29k and accounted for through a legitimate car loan that’s public record. Not holding my breath for that article.
Anita Wright
July 15, 2022 at 10:10 pm
The reason that’s not news is because unlike you, Karen did not pay for her car by leeching off of Joe Biden’s irresponsible spending during a worldwide pandemic. Jake you, on the other hand, not only enabled Joe Biden’s frivolous behavior with taxpayer money-you mimicked it.
Now go place your Rolex on the watch winder for tonight and tomorrow, tell us all when you’ll be returning those loans.
Anita Wrong
July 16, 2022 at 9:32 pm
Uhh, it was trumps irresponsible spending honey.
Hunter Grazno
July 15, 2022 at 11:47 pm
https://www.federalpay.org/paycheck-protection-program/chris-pittman-md-pa-tampa-fl
LOL, Anita, are you aware that Karen’s and her husband’s business took 200k in PPP loans? Maybe they should have saved some of their PPP loans to hire an actually competent PR team to write shill comments and articles for them instead of you. I guess you’ll be calling her and her husband out here then?
Patty Ryan
July 16, 2022 at 12:10 pm
Oh, Hunter, one day you’ll look down at swollen ankles and realize that your aging veins are shot. You’ll go crawling where? To Dr. Pittman’s office, like many of us in South Tampa. You’ll meet the caring staff, you’ll marvel at how well the place is run, and you’ll be glad that he got a PPP loan. I personally can attest to putting off office visits during the pandemic, so I’m glad the program was there for him. Records show he had 21 people on his payroll in 2019. I hope they’re all still employed. This is why the PPP was created.
John Barron
July 16, 2022 at 9:39 pm
Having to take out a loan on a used $29k car? What a total loser/poser. He’s very overrated. No charisma!! Florida deserves better. What about one of the Trump kids?
Cynthia Santos
July 17, 2022 at 8:21 pm
Dr Pittman has many, many employees in three locations in Tampa. He needed the money to continue his LEGITIMATE business and to keep his employees during the pandemic. How did Jake qualify for two PPP loans? The second time was much, much harder and you had to show a significant decline in income in order to qualify, but Jake calls himself a “serial entrepreneur”. Also, it is suspicious that he flaunted his new treasures right after the PPP loans.
Elliott Offen
July 16, 2022 at 9:35 am
Vote RED for wealth and income inequality the likes of which the world has never seen.
Vote RED for a culture of greed, racism, incivility, and mind bending politicized religion.
Vote RED for low wage exploitation and capitalist scams
Vote RED for domestic terrorism to eliminate government so that hogs can grift Americans into slavery.
Vote RED for ancient Roman plutocracy all in the name of Jesus.
Educated Radneck
July 16, 2022 at 10:49 am
PERFECTLY written Elliott! Gotta give you props here!!
Ken
July 18, 2022 at 1:56 pm
It’s blue for diving DOW, gas over five, losing USA oil for imaginary green climate crap
No Fake Jake
July 16, 2022 at 10:11 am
Lol acting like a baller but doesn’t even hold the title on the car. Bruh sus af. Lil dick Jake.
Connie Oliver
July 16, 2022 at 10:23 am
Pelosi’s husband also got approved for a PPP loan… good grief! Blame the government
YYep
July 16, 2022 at 1:08 pm
Florida is car dependent.it is a shame they can’t buy the food for it.
YYep
July 16, 2022 at 3:02 pm
That’s their liberty but I think being public nosy about things is not good
YYep
July 16, 2022 at 3:09 pm
Yep extortion. The devil’s tool hmmm
Gail
July 16, 2022 at 5:35 pm
Who paid for this political hit piece?
I have a good guess….
This is the best you can come up with?
Pathetic.
You claim to cover politics in Florida so
cover the politics not attempted character assassination.
Ultra Maga Anti-Leftist Extremist
July 16, 2022 at 7:08 pm
Imagine blaming some kid getting an Aston Martin instead of the Leftist World Order and their friends the CCP for the disasters of 2020 #Deflection #Desperation
Comments are closed.