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

[JO1s]

A lot of business owners pocketed money from these funds. Plenty of people tried making fake businesses to receive them too. I remember it back when I was working in banking at the time.

[SupremeGoddess]

now how and why did wealthy ass celebs get relief money to begin with  

 

[XIAN]

trump is going to pardon them all since he signed the original law

[Moloko Plus]

4 minutes ago, SupremeGoddess said:

now how and why did wealthy ass celebs get relief money to begin with  

 

It's in the article dahling

 

Quote

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.

 

[Minto]

wasn't this money to account for the revenue lost because people couldn't tour during covid? does lil wayne even tour lmao 

 

[commander]

Why would celebrities with a millionaire status need a relief for?  the us is r really something else

[ShouldersSideways]

I'm thinking the idea behind these loans were that the people in question may not have been liquid enough to pay their employees and keep things running.  A lot of their wealth is tied up.  But instead of actually supporting the people who keep their businesses running, they sprinted to spend it on throwing parties and buying luxury goods.  The most egregious one here is that Alice in Chains ran a GoFundMe for one of their employees when he got cancer, despite the fact they got all that money that could've went toward insurance for him.  Then he died.  

Everyone on the list should be ashamed of themselves, and so should all the normal people who created fake businesses.  The difference is I bet the every day, average citizens who committed this fraud will get harsher punishments than these celebs. 

[americanlife]

They caused all this inflation. PPP loans.

[king_queen]

Honestly these musicians did what the average person would do if they received this much ******* money from the government. The issue is the government! MILLIONS of Americans lost their homes throughout the pandemic btw  

[Flanders]

Chris brown truly is such an idiot assh*le

[M.R.]

Giving all this money to millionaires instead of to regular people and indie musicians with daily jobs so they can keep their passion going is so ******. That country is a capitalist dark place.

[Mania]

The same celebrities that thought they did something by singing Imagine with the lyrics like "No need for greed or hunger" in it

[ONOPKA]

chris brown is a piece of **** wbk 

 

hope they are make to repay these funds

[ClashAndBurn]

2 hours ago, wastedpotential said:

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 

Well, all they have to do is contribute to Republicans and then the incoming administration might let them off the hook somehow. Maybe.  

[wastedpotential]

8 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Well, all they have to do is contribute to Republicans and then the incoming administration might let them off the hook somehow. Maybe.  

I mean Lil Wayne already has a history of pardons from Trump so this is an entirely likely outcome 

 

The main thing I could see standing in the way is Elon's *alleged* rampant racism causing him to whisper DOGE-**** in Trump's ear, but only for the musicians of color who engaged in this campaign of... creative grant utilization 

[Bimbo]

What the **** throw them all in jail

[Jotham]

$2000 on some random torn up sweater  rich people are so weird

[vuelve88]

I'm glad Shakira wasn't living in the US at that time, because she definitely would have used that "grant" 

 

[Cheers]

A lot of celebrities and businesses did that

 

Jeffree Star did too

[Bubble Tea]

More taxpayer's money being stolen than some artists steal writing credits!

[Communion]

The way that people abused the PPP program makes the pearl-clutching and fear-mongering over student-debt relief even more idiotic. 

[Madaboutmusic]