Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Others Reportedly Obtained Thousands and thousands In Taxpayer-Funded COVID-Aid Grants
A invoice referred to as the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant was accredited by Congress in 2020 and signed into legislation by Donald Trump. The fund was designed to help artists and venues that have been being pressured to shut as a result of to COVID-19. Nevertheless it ended offering funding to some extremely popular performers as nicely.
In accordance with an exposé by Enterprise Insider, large artists resembling Chris Brown, Alice In Chains, and Lil Wayne, misused these funds by incomes hundreds of thousands of {dollars} after which lavishly spending it.
Lil Wayne acquired a taxpayer-funded $8.9 million grant from the above fund, and he “spent greater than $1.3 million from the grant on private-jet flights and over $460,000 on garments and equipment, lots of them from high-end manufacturers like Gucci and Balenciaga.” The A-list rapper additionally reportedly used $175k of that cash on “a music competition selling his marijuana model, GKUA” and likewise used the grant for “flights and luxurious lodge rooms for girls whose connection to Lil Wayne’s touring operation was unclear, together with a waitress at a Hooters-type restaurant and a porn actress.”
Lil Wayne can be accused of taking $88,000 in taxpayer cash for a live performance in Coachella, California that he by no means confirmed up for. When Enterprise Insider reached him by way of textual content, Wayne responded with “a sexually express overture to a reporter and didn’t reply to questions.”
Shoppers of the managing enterprise NKSFB acquired a minimum of $207 million in grant funds, whereas the agency itself took $7 million out of that, in line with Enterprise Insider. The article particulars the expenditures they made utilizing the paper path they left behind. For instance, it seems that Chris Brown acquired $5.1 million and his touring agency acquired $10 million. As well as, he acquired $80,000 to rejoice his birthday in a lavish approach. In accordance with reviews, Marshmello acquired more cash than every other musician—almost $10 million.
The article particulars the ways in which musicians like Steve Aoki, Rae Sremmurd, and Shinedown have been paid grant cash as nicely. It claims that members of Alice In Chains have been paid $3.4 million and there’s a element that can certainly disturb some folks: “Scott Dachroeden, a guitar tech and tour photographer who had labored with the band for years, acquired a most cancers prognosis in late 2022. The band, which information present didn’t spend grant cash on advantages like medical insurance, circulated a GoFundMe web page on Twitter.” Dachroeden has since handed away, and sources informed Enterprise Insider that the band didn’t do a lot to assist him financially.
