Posted on 08/19/2026 4:23:46 PM PDT by CFW
The Trump administration is moving to claw back tens of millions of dollars in pandemic relief that went to celebrities, music artists, and entertainment-industry elites.
The Small Business Administration announced Tuesday that it has referred $34 million in outstanding Shuttered Venue Operators Grant(SVOG) debt to the Treasury Department, marking the first time the federal government has referred unresolved debt from the program to the Treasury for collection.
The move is part of a broader effort by SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler to recover pandemic-era funds that the agency says were improperly awarded or remain outstanding.
“Under the Biden Administration, the SVOG program became one of the biggest cash-grabs of the pandemic,” Loeffler said in a statement first obtained by Daily Wire. “For the last year, the Trump-SBA has been working to recoup funds meant for struggling small arts and entertainment businesses that ended up lining the pockets of celebrities, music artists, and elite talent agents.”
“Today’s $34 million referral to the Treasury Department is only the first one,” she added, saying the agency will continue using “every lawful tool to claw back unmerited SVOG payments.”
[snip]
Congress authorized $16.25 billion for the program, with individual applicants eligible for grants of up to $10 million.
But the program ultimately became a source of millions of dollars in federal aid for some of the entertainment industry’s wealthiest names. Business Insider previously reported that musicians including Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Marshmello, Steve Aoki, and members of Alice in Chains received millions of dollars through the program.
Lil Wayne’s touring company received an $8.9 million grant. Records reviewed by BusinessInsider showed that more than $1.3 million was spent on private-jet flights and more than $460,000 on clothing and accessories, while nearly $88K was charged to taxpayers for a concert the rapper did not ultimately perform.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailywire.com ...
SBA
@SBAgov
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2h
FRAUD UPDATE: Today, SBA referred $34 million in past-due Shuttered Venue Operators Grant debt to @USTreasury for collection.
The SVOG program was administered entirely by the Biden Administration, ostensibly to support music venues and theaters during the pandemic. Instead, under lax oversight, it became a cash grab for celebrities, music artists, and Hollywood agents.
In partnership with @WHFraudTF, the Trump SBA will relentlessly pursue every fraudster, refer every eligible debt for collection, and recover every taxpayer dollar that was improperly awarded.
“The grants were intended to help keep struggling businesses in the live entertainment industry afloat during the pandemic, when venues and performances were shut down across the country.
Instead, critics have pointed to instances in which large sums flowed to already wealthy entertainers and their business managers.”
So in other words the program worked exactly as intended.
L
These cultural icons have recurring debts that have to be paid, concerts or not. Cocaine ain’t cheap.
clothing and accessories?
Oh, dass bling!
If there was an America, like the America that was the land of opportunity and the place where you could achieve based on your efforts, I would move there. We are now the land of grifters, manipulators, fraudsters, malcontents, and incomprehensible entitlement. I can’t stand scammers. They are like the fungus that destroys midwestern corn.
The same government that benefits from the financials of “celebrities” has no business excluding them from financial relief programs.
If there was an America, like the America that was the land of opportunity and the place where you could achieve based on your efforts, I would move there. We are now the land of grifters, manipulators, fraudsters, malcontents, and incomprehensible entitlement. I can’t stand scammers. They are like the fungus that destroys midwestern corn.
Every day there is another story — or several more stories — of politicians, illegal aliens, and the politically connected stealing from the tax payers. Given the number of people caught thus far, I have to think it was deliberate. Open the borders, create inflation, high crime, shortage of housing, and in doing so they overload the system. Then when the chaos begins appease the people by promising everything free. Socialism — then communism.
It was all deliberate.
Un”freakin’believable”. Let’s hope that all these people have to repay their ill-gotten gains while serving jail time. And yes, people in the creepy gropin’ pedophile slowjoe’s corrupt admin should be in jail too.
Chris Brown???!!! The serial abuser and drug dealer and addict who many say killed Whitney Houston???? That cretin got our money???!!!
Bailouts for the rich. All the rich get taken care of and then some.
The little guy gets the screws put to him.
There is zero question that much of it is. This was what Obama meant when he said 'fundamentally transform the United States'. Soros and his flying monkeys clearly want this.
Nonetheless, the biggest problem is our fellow citizens who vote for people who want to destroy us. I can't stomach them, and don't want anything to do with them.
It’s Cloward & Piven strategy. Create as much chaos as possible in any way that is possible. Collapse the nation and take it over.
I wonder how much Hunter Biden received.
Anyone surprised
No one is surprised. It’s business as usual. The US government has grown into a huge, stinking parasite. America has been consumed by it’s own government. You cannot blame the worms for consuming the rotting corpse.
I bet some of them weren’t even black!
Great to see Trump team going after fraud and waste but until some big name criminals get arrested, I wont be satisfied.
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