Thread by @JakeSwearingen

Last year we discovered a COVID relief fund meant for struggling arts venues had given $200M+ to wealthy musicians. But we didn't know HOW they spent it — until now. We got the literal receipts, with @TheNewsHam and @ByKLong reviewing thousands of pages of accounting docs

Lil Wayne got $8.9M in taxpayer money and spent it on private jets ($1.3M), designer clothes ($460k), and luxury hotels, and even $88k for a NYE show he skipped. Chris Brown used COVID funds to throw an $80k birthday party with "atmosphere models" and $29k in bottle service

Alice in Chains members paid themselves $3.4M from grant the same year they made $48M selling their catalog. Meanwhile, their longtime guitar tech Scott Dachroeden — the exact type of worker this grant was meant to help — had to rely on GoFundMe when he got cancer.

"At a minimum, it smells," David Walker, a former comptroller general of the United States, told us. "Whether it's legal or not is up to a lawyer or ultimately to a court. But it sure smells."

One company firm looms large in this: NKSFB, a powerhouse biz management firm that got glowing writeups in 2022 for its "outside the box" thinking on getting its rich clients grant money. Their lawyer said BI has "little to no understanding on this subject."

The grant was run by the Small Business Administration. SBA employees who worked say they were told, "Shut up, sit down, process the file." So far, only $43M of the $14.5B distributed has been recouped

This grant did help many small arts orgs! One acting school founder who got <$120k to survive COVID was "speechless" learning how stars like Chris Brow spent their grants. "I will never forget how hard-fought-for this funding was," she said.

The bottom line: A COVID relief program meant to save struggling arts venues became a windfall for wealthy musicians. They spent millions in taxpayer money on luxury hotels, private jets, parties & million-dollar bonuses to themselves. Full story here: businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chri…