How rich musicians billed American taxpayers for luxury hotels, shopping sprees, and million-dollar bonuses

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

22 comments

  3. Sure, let’s pick on a handful of musicians, but let’s ignore the big bailouts to the airlines and other huge international conglomerates that got billions from the government

  4. >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.

    So this money was meant for community venues. Places like Black Cat in DC, the Comedy Celler in NYC, etc.

    >Thousands of pages of accounting documents reviewed by Business Insider reveal, for the first time, how some wealthy musicians — including Chris Brown, the DJ Marshmello, and members of Alice in Chains — spent grants they received through the program.

    Again, these grants were not meant for performers, they were meant for venues.

    >They reveal how artists directed millions in taxpayer funds not toward touring crew members, but instead toward their own bank accounts, luxury purchases, and entertainment expenses — often while sitting on substantial wealth from other business ventures.

    >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.

    >The SBA’s guidance said artists could use grants paid to their loan-out company to pay themselves as long as the check was no bigger than it was in 2019.

    >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.

    >In other words, because Comstock made more than $9.9 million from touring in 2019, he was able to award himself the entire grant. In doing so, Comstock paid himself more than any other musician who received grant money.

    This is not what the money was meant for. This is fraud.

    The article lists a lot of celebrities who participated, Lil Wayne, Alice in Chains, Steve Aoki, Shinedown, etc. I think a lot of these people will claim their team handled it and they didn’t know, but I don’t think you get to make that excuse when you are spending $9 million of taxpayer money on yourself.

    Heads should roll. People should pay back the money plus fines or go to jail.

  5. >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

    The person responsible for this program is the President elect, so I’m sure he’ll get right on that.

  6. Privatized Gains Socialized Losses

    🦅Murca Fuck Ya!🦅 /s

  7. This is honestly so fucking disgusting. People who do this type of shit should have their entire net worth taken from them and be forced to live off of minimum wage for the rest of their lives.

  9. It’s not the musicians doing this. It’s the guys in suits leveraging the tax code to lure these high net individuals as clients. Y’all complain the tax code is to complicated but that’s why there’s a whole bunch of shit listed after small things like charitable contributions since it can be exploited. A lot of times the tax code is open to interpretation, as a result a ruling has to be made by the IRS to further explain the criteria’s for certain funds/tax writes off etc

  10. Corporate c suite suck bags did all this and more. Trump voting “small” business owners did it and bragged to everyone they knew (even the dirty leftist that their daughter dated). I hate the extravagance of the rich and movie stars and singers are never exempted but they aren’t at the front of the line. The billionaires who don’t even pretend to make art are at the front of the line and they can come collect their prize without trying to deflect with these articles.

  11. They need to make all those fuckers pay the money back, including the Trump and Kushner families, which received between $3-4 million.

  12. Rule #1 – STOP GIVING A FUCK ABOUT CHRIS BROWN
    Rule # 2 – Repeat Rule # 1

  14. Imagine if that money was going to an American health insurance program instead… like all the other developed nations do with their citizens’ tax dollars.

    Instead, our money was used to buy private jets & pay for parties that cost nearly $100,000.

    And on top of that, we still paid out for health insurance because America’s privatized healthcare system means we have to buy it from health insurance agencies that charge us up the ass for it.

    And because they are private companies, owned by CEO’s instead of the American people, they make a profit through the high cost AND by refusing to pay for treatments that are literally being requested/recommended by doctors.

    For example: denying a claim that asks to help pay for anti-nausea meds for a child with cancer because their chemotherapy is making them sick.

    At least Chris Brown had a good 33rd birthday party tho 💗

  15. Whatever. Unless they’re going to be forced to pay thr money back this is a big nothing burger.

    Race, ethnicity, and country of origin don’t matter to the elites. They’ll steal money and tell the rest of pound sand.

  16. The American dream is for everyone but the average American person.

  17. That’s just smart business. You never use your own money.

  20. I think I’m gonna be sick, this shit can’t stand for long can it?

  21. We had a similar thing happen over here in the UK but it was meant to be loans to help struggling small businesses get through the pandemic. Unfortunately, the Conservative government at the time made so many loopholes in it that there were people setting up brand new companies (so no trading history) and claiming thousands of pounds in taxpayer money, then closing the business due to “bankruptcy” and dancing off with all the money.

    There was SOME help for the self-employed (such as musicians) but it was very limited, so some people weren’t eligible to claim anything at all.

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