High-profile artists together with Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and Marshmello obtained and misused hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in government-issued COVID-19 reduction cash, based on a brand new report from Business Insider’s Jack Newsham and Katherine Long. The exposé particulars how the musicians allegedly exploited the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG)—a program signed into legislation in 2020 to help hard-hit unbiased venues and struggling artists—to pad out their already luxurious existence with lavish events, designer clothes, leisure journey, and extra.
According to intensive accounting paperwork considered by Business Insider, Lil Wayne obtained $8.9 million in grant funds from SVOG. He reportedly allotted over $1.3 million of that cash to private-jet journey and over $460,000 to clothes from high-end manufacturers akin to Balenciaga, Marni, Raf Simons, and Gucci. Wayne additionally reportedly billed taxpayers upward of $175,000 for “bills associated to a music pageant selling his marijuana model, GKUA, together with clothes for artists related together with his document label,” as Business Insider put it.
Additional alleged misuse of the funds included nearly $15,000 on flights and luxurious lodge rooms for girls with no obvious connection to Wayne’s touring operation. The rapper additionally billed taxpayers slightly below $88,000 for bills associated to a live performance he by no means carried out (scheduled to happen on New Year’s Eve 2021 in California).
Business Insider studies that Chris Brown’s firm CBE Touring obtained a $10 million grant—of which Brown obtained $5.1 million personally. His lavish thirty third party additionally reportedly price taxpayers nearly $80,000, which was spent on “environment fashions,” an LED dance flooring, bottle service, hookahs, and “nitrogen ice cream,” amongst different issues.
Producer and DJ Marshmello reportedly obtained $9.9 million in grant cash from SVOG—all of which he awarded to himself. Because he made greater than that quantity touring in 2019, he was in a position to declare the grant in its entirety. According to Business Insider, Marshmello paid himself greater than some other musician who was granted SVOG cash, as Wayne, Brown, and others, paid among the funds towards their managers, crew, and extra workers.
Steve Aoki and members of Alice in Chains have been additionally named within the report for allegedly misusing SVOG funds. The SVOG program was helmed by the Small Business Administration, which claimed, in an announcement to Business Insider, that it was directed to look at income, not the belongings of recipients. This allowed a gaping loophole for millionaire musicians to obtain funds meant for struggling artists.
