Lil Wayne, according to a Business Insider story, allegedly faked claims of No drug use to obtain $9 million in pandemic loans from the Small Business Association (SBA) through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program.
The program was created to assist financially strapped music venues in avoiding bankruptcy.
Lil Wayne known in real life as Dwayne Carter, told the government in 2021 that his touring firm was a “drug-free workplace” and that “employees were informed of the dangers” associated with narcotics like marijuana.
The Lollipop crooner added that anyone found in violation of the guidelines would face consequences or be required to check into a drug rehab facility.
The Small Business Administration eventually sent an $8.9 million check to Lil Wayne’s company, Young Money Touring Inc.
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The inquiry states that the SBA did not look into Lil Wayne’s company’s claims in great detail. The agency’s inspector general reported last year that staff members had only four hours to analyze each application in its entirety.
The SBA further stated that “any drug use outside the period from March 2020 to June 2022” and “personal actions” of individuals like Lil Wayne were not covered by the “fairly narrow” drug certification process.
Celebrity drug use is perceived differently from that of the general public, according to Harold Pollack, a public health expert at the University of Chicago.
“When you have social status, your substance use is treated in a different way,” Pollack stated. “They don’t brutalize a lot of celebrities for behaviors that we would very harshly treat in people with less prestige.”
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which was created to assist ailing music venues in avoiding bankruptcy, awarded the monies to Lil Wayne’s company. A-list musicians were already clients of NKSFB, a Los Angeles asset-management company well-known for its celebrity clientele, and they received $200 million in payments in 2023.
A representative of SBA said that some money had already been refunded due to violations of the drug-free certification, adding that they were not going to comment on Lil Wayne’s business.
The State Department is continuously monitoring and auditing grantees. About $40 million has been returned by SVOG grantees thus far, and more files have been forwarded for continuing criminal investigations or civil lawsuits, according to the organization.
“To date, none of the recoveries relate to the drug-free certification,” the organization was quick to add.
