Whereas us common residents obtained COVID stipends within the mail to assist run our small companies or maintain cleansing merchandise in the home, celebrities had entry to their very own program too. Nonetheless, a bombshell report revealed what a few of these celebs spent their pandemic funds on.
Let’s simply say they balled all the best way out.
A current report from Enterprise Insider took a dive into the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program which was supposed to assist the humanities and leisure again in 2020. Of the 13,000 arts teams that obtained federal funding had been arts academies across the nation but in addition rich, rich musicians. How the grant functions had been permitted by the Small Enterprise Administration continues to be up for debate given musicians weren’t particularly thought of eligible, per BI’s report. Nonetheless, the funds had been permitted someway.
BI positioned a lens on how rapper Lil Wayne and R&B singer Chris Brown spent their funds which can or might not have been … authorized. In keeping with accounting data obtained by the outlet, Lil Wayne obtained $8.9 million in grant cash and blew $1.38 million of it on personal jets, one other $2 million to repay debt to a former supervisor and different a whole lot of 1000’s on designer garments from Balenciaga to Marni. One other $15,000 was reportedly spent on flight and resort lodging for girls.
Brown, however, obtained $10 million in grant funds. The report says half of it was pocketed by the singer and paperwork present he spent one other $80,000 on a birthday celebration to cowl issues starting from nude, painted fashions, hookah, bottle service and “nitrogen ice cream.” Brown reportedly spent one other $24,000 to take his tour to Mexico (the place he didn’t carry out), per expense stories by way of Enterprise Insider. There, he spent a number of days in Tulum filming a video with Jack Harlow. The most important bucks he spent went to his supervisor, Anthony Wilson, his accountants at NKSFB, attorneys and crew payroll, per the report.
Different artists who additionally benefited from the SVOG program had been DJ Marshmello who pocketed $9.9 million and Alice in Chains’ touring firm who obtained $1.4 million.
Although the disbursement of the funds to the rich one-percenters wasn’t decidedly fraudulent, it raised sufficient concern about how the functions had been permitted within the first place. A report from the SBA’s inspector common discovered the company relaxed anti-fraud management on the entrance finish of the grant course of and famous points with what recipients spent cash on solely after the very fact, per BI’s report.
Who cares anyway what wealthy individuals spend their cash on?
Nicely, it issues when the cash they’re spending is coming from American taxpayer pockets. The chair of the Committee on Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs, Sen. Gary Peters, mentioned BI’s findings present the SVOG program was “an abuse of federal assets.” Whereas COVID reduction was supposed to assist these smaller companies and humanities applications, it was not meant to go to “tremendous rich celebrities,” he informed the outlet.