celeb news Wealthy musicians exposed for using COVID relief funds for clothes, strippers

[Moloko Plus]

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a Business Insider investigation found, he received an $8.9 million grant from a little-known pandemic-relief program that he used to cover more than two years' worth of spending on luxury hotel stays, designer clothes, and travel to and from nightclub appearances around the country.

The rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Carter Jr., spent more than $1.3 million from the grant on private-jet flights and over $460,000 on clothes and accessories, many of them from high-end brands like Gucci and Balenciaga. He billed taxpayers more than $175,000 for expenses related to a music festival promoting his marijuana brand, GKUA, including clothing for artists associated with his record label.

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Chris Brown spent his grant on a big paycheck — and a big party. Of the $10 million grant Brown's company CBE Touring received, $5.1 million went to Brown personally. He also billed taxpayers nearly $80,000 for his 33rd birthday party.

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Marshmello, whose real name is Christopher Comstock, received a $9.9 million grant. More than a year later, when the SBA asked for proof of where it went, his business manager Steven Macauley, of NKSFB, responded by saying all the money went into Comstock's pocket.

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Steve Aoki's loan-out company, DJ Kid Millionaire Touring, used $2.4 million in grant money on payroll costs, of which $1.9 million was officer pay. Aoki is the company's only officer. Aoki's publicists didn't respond to requests for comment.

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Three of the four members of the rock band Shinedown split at least $2.5 million of their $8.3 million grant. On top of those distributions, Shinedown's four members paid themselves more than $100,000 each out of the roughly $1.2 million of the grant that was allocated to payroll.

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On March 23, 2022, records show, the Alice in Chains singer and guitarist Jerry Cantrell took in $1.4 million as an "SVOG distribution." The band's drummer, Sean Kinney, received the same amount, and its bassist, Mike Inez, booked half that sum, about $682,000. 
 

The band spent some money to pay its staff. It paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to sound-equipment-rental firms, videographers, and managers. But the precarious nature of working in the live-entertainment business didn't change for some of its employees. Scott Dachroeden, a guitar tech and tour photographer who had worked with the band for years, received a cancer diagnosis in late 2022. The band, which records show did not spend grant money on benefits like health insurance, circulated a GoFundMe page on Twitter.

 

Dachroeden didn't get much, if any, money from the band during the pandemic and that after his diagnosis, the band connected Dachroeden with a charity that helps with medical bills. Dachroeden died soon after his diagnosis.

https://www.businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chris-brown-covid-relief-funds-svog-grant-2024-12

Edited 3 hours ago by Moloko Plus

[Nefertiti0]

Brown's company CBE Touring reportedly received $10 million, about half of which went to Brown personally. Documents also suggest he used $80,000 of the SVOG money on his 33rd birthday party, including more than $29,000 on hookahs, bottle service, "nitrogen ice cream," and covering damages to rented couches, plus $2,100 on "atmosphere models" (described as nude women in body paint). 




Lil Wayne received an $8.9 million grant from a little-known pandemic-relief program that he used to cover more than two years' worth of spending on luxury hotel stays, designer clothes, and travel to and from nightclub appearances around the country.
Other SVOG funds allegedly went to settling a debt owed to an ex-manager, covering commissions for another manager, and paying lawyers.




Marshmello, whose real name is Christopher Comstock, received a $9.9M grant. More than a year later, when the SBA asked for proof of where it went, his business manager responded by saying all the money went into Comstock's pocket because he made more than $9.9M from touring in 2019, he was able to award himself the entire grant. In doing so, Marshmello paid himself more than any other musician who received grant money.

businessinsider.com

[Moloko Plus]

 

 

[LegaMyth]

Like I always say,"Let's wait for more evidence, but this is a freaking mess."

[wastedpotential]

Now okay I understand that covid was a very fraught time but they need to pay this back immediately, or the IRS (or whatever investigative service works with the SBA here) is going to move into their walls 

[Into The Void]

Why did wealthy people receive this for?

[Park Jinyoung]

Not "mystery women" being a category 

[Gesamtkunstwerk]

I'd be more surprised if they didn't tbh

[BrokenMachine]

What Wendy said (even when I like Alice In Chains )

[BeenTheShit]

Wait so they paid average Americans peanuts for covid relief and gave the rich millions to blow? 

[Peroxide]

GROSS.

[Moloko Plus]

1 hour ago, Into The Void said:

Why did wealthy people receive this for?

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The money came from a program called the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. Signed into law by Trump in 2020 and championed by lawmakers including Sen. Chuck Schumer, it was established as a lifeline for struggling independent venues and arts groups during the pandemic.

But pop stars used the program as a piggy bank to keep the party going, reporting by Business Insider shows.

 

The stars' spending took place against a backdrop of massive pandemic-relief fraud. The Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans gave out as much as $200 billion in suspected false claims, losses that combined with false unemployment-benefit claims amount to what the FBI has called the largest fraud in history. Compared with those better-known programs, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant had relatively strict eligibility requirements.

Still, accounting firms and money managers soon realized their stadium-filling musician clients might be eligible for grant money via their loan-out companies — corporate entities used to handle the business of touring. Grants awarded to clients of one high-powered entertainment-business-management firm, NKSFB, totaled at least $207 million, BI previously reported. NKSFB itself collected more than $7 million by helping its clients obtain the grants.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Moloko Plus

[Just a Gay on ATRL]

Throw them all in jail. I don't care. Absolutely rotted.

[Dear Reader]

Absolutely disgusting 

[Eóghan]

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As Rolling Stone previously reported, an array of different pandemic relief programs opened the door to wide-scale fraud and questionable uses of taxpayer money.

 

 

 

 

5$ million worth of taxpayer money goin straight into Chris Brown's pockets you can't make this up; how are muricans in this site feeling about supporting a man with a chronic history of violence and abuse everytime they pay their taxes ...

 

land of the free(loading)

[May]

can you please post in plain text? this thread would have 4x more replies if you people woke up and realised that us (the majority) of users who use dark mode CANNOT read your posts. the text is black on a black background

[perfect blue]

Fix the formatting.

[Velvet Night]

This is a gross misuse of the grant in general, but I don't understand why did they even got funds in the first place?

[nadiamendell]

Wbk. The wealthy made out like bandits through covid while the rest of us received crumbs. 

[NEX]

I mean I get if someone was given free money they'd take, but I wanna know what that organisation was thinking handling out millions to the already wealthy?? 

[piotrert]

who is even approving $10mln payout for those people. they also need to be held accountable

[Walk_Away21]

Disgusting... sue their asses and get that money back.

[Attaboy]

Dumb question for the uninformed- Is this just an exposé or is it legit fraud punishable by law?

[Katamari]

shinedown being here is so random

 

time to announce some tours i guess  

[Achilles.]

Covid policies were a massive upwards wealth redistribution disguised as "relief" for the American people. 

 

Just like Kamala Harris's campaign. 
 

And most other things that happen in the federal government. 
 

None of this should be news to people.