A invoice often called the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant was authorized by Congress in 2020 and signed into regulation by Donald Trump. The fund was designed to help artists and venues that have been being compelled to shut as a result of to COVID-19. Nevertheless it ended offering funding to some very fashionable performers as properly.
In keeping with an exposé by Enterprise Insider, massive artists comparable to Chris Brown, Alice In Chains, and Lil Wayne, misused these funds by incomes tens of millions of {dollars} after which lavishly spending it.
Lil Wayne received 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, a lot 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 resort rooms for ladies 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 also 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 specific overture to a reporter and didn’t reply to questions.”
Shoppers of the managing enterprise NKSFB obtained not less than $207 million in grant funds, whereas the agency itself took $7 million out of that, based on Enterprise Insider. The article particulars the expenditures they made utilizing the paper path they left behind. For instance, it seems that Chris Brown obtained $5.1 million and his touring agency obtained $10 million. As well as, he obtained $80,000 to have fun his birthday in a lavish method. In keeping with reviews, Marshmello obtained extra money than some 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 properly. It claims that members of Alice In Chains have been paid $3.4 million and there’s a element that may certainly disturb some individuals: “Scott Dachroeden, a guitar tech and tour photographer who had labored with the band for years, obtained 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 advised Enterprise Insider that the band didn’t do a lot to assist him financially.