December 19, 2024
10:27 AM
(Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images)
Lil Wayne has been named among other artists who reportedly squandered pandemic-relief profits during COVID-19.
In a new report from Business Insider, the 5-time Grammy winner was found to have received an $8.9 million grant as a payout from the Shuttered Venue Operations Grant, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Disaster Assistance. President Donald Trump signed the $200 million Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) into law in 2020. Still, it was made available to affluent individuals in the music industry through “loan-out companies,” or corporations that plan tours for musicians.
The pandemic funding was intended to support independent event spaces and art organizations. Still, rather than using it towards his music, the BI article detailed $1.3 million in private flights, $460,000 in clothes and accessories and charging taxpayers $175,000 in music festival expenses, to promote his GKUA cannabis brand.
BI also revealed that Wayne’s spending wasn’t limited to himself, as $15,000 in flights and rooming were covered for at least two women. Other expenses included $2.14 million and $1.71 million payments to his former managers, Cortez Bryant and Mack Maine, respectively; $590.7 million to his lawyers and $589.7 to his accountants.
Other artists mentioned in the report included Chris Brown and Rae Sremmurd, the latter of whom were said to have gotten a hefty portion of their $7.7 million grant through Sremm Touring. As for Brown, the singer received a $10 million grant, with $5.1 million going to him personally, while taxpayers were billed $80,000 for his 33rd birthday party.
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