{"id":819025,"date":"2025-01-11T10:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T16:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/11\/lil-wayne-chris-brown-and-more-misused-millions-in-covid-19-relief-money-for-luxury-purchases-report\/"},"modified":"2025-01-11T10:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T16:12:10","slug":"lil-wayne-chris-brown-and-more-misused-millions-in-covid-19-relief-money-for-luxury-purchases-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/11\/lil-wayne-chris-brown-and-more-misused-millions-in-covid-19-relief-money-for-luxury-purchases-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and More Misused Millions in COVID-19 Relief Money for Luxury Purchases: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

High-profile artists including Lil Wayne<\/a>, Chris Brown<\/a>, and Marshmello<\/a> obtained and misused millions of dollars in government-issued COVID-19<\/a> relief money, according to a new report from Business<\/em> Insider<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Jack Newsham and Katherine Long. The expos\u00e9 details how the musicians allegedly exploited the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG)<\/a>\u2014a program signed into law in 2020 to support hard-hit independent venues and struggling artists\u2014to pad out their already luxurious lifestyles with lavish parties, designer clothing, recreational travel, and more.<\/p>\n

According to extensive accounting documents viewed by Business Insider<\/em>, Lil Wayne received $8.9 million in grant funds from SVOG. He reportedly allocated over $1.3 million of that money to private-jet travel and over $460,000 to clothing from high-end brands such as Balenciaga, Marni, Raf Simons, and Gucci. Wayne also reportedly billed taxpayers upward of $175,000 for \u201cexpenses related to a music festival promoting his marijuana brand, GKUA, including clothing for artists associated with his record label,\u201d as Business Insider<\/em> put it.<\/p>\n

Additional alleged misuse of the funds included almost $15,000 on flights and luxury hotel rooms for women with no apparent connection to Wayne\u2019s touring operation. The rapper also billed taxpayers just under $88,000 for expenses related to a concert he never performed (scheduled to take place on New Year\u2019s Eve 2021 in California).<\/p>\n

Business Insider<\/em> reports that Chris Brown\u2019s company CBE Touring received a $10 million grant\u2014of which Brown received $5.1 million personally. His lavish 33rd birthday party also reportedly cost taxpayers almost $80,000, which was spent on \u201catmosphere models,\u201d an LED dance floor, bottle service, hookahs, and \u201cnitrogen ice cream,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n

Producer and DJ Marshmello reportedly received $9.9 million in grant money from SVOG\u2014all of which he awarded to himself. Because he made more than that amount touring in 2019, he was able to claim the grant in its entirety. According to Business Insider<\/em>, Marshmello paid himself more than any other musician who was granted SVOG money, as Wayne, Brown, and others, paid some of the funds toward their managers, crew, and additional staff.<\/p>\n

Steve Aoki and members of Alice in Chains were also named in the report for allegedly misusing SVOG funds. The SVOG program was helmed by the Small Business Administration<\/a>, which claimed, in a statement to Business Insider<\/em>, that it was directed to examine revenue, not the assets of recipients. This allowed a gaping loophole for millionaire musicians to receive funds meant for struggling artists.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The<\/picture><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High-profile artists including Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and Marshmello obtained and misused millions of dollars in government-issued COVID-19 relief money, according to a new report from Business Insider \u2019s Jack Newsham and Katherine Long. The expos\u00e9 details how the musicians allegedly exploited the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG)\u2014a program signed into law in 2020 to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":819026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[356,1543],"tags":[6932,13445],"class_list":{"0":"post-819025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chris","8":"category-wayne","9":"tag-chris","10":"tag-wayne"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}