The SBA's live-entertainment bailout was supposed to end two years ago. We still don't know how $1.5 billion was spent.

Business Insider

a day ago

The Small Business Administration is still tracking down $1.5 billion in federal funds that it spent to keep the live entertainment industry afloat during the pandemic — two years after it was supposed to close out the program.
The SBA inspector-general said in a new report that by June 2023 the agency was supposed to have made "every effort" to close out the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, which doled out money to thousands of music venues, movie theaters, and other entertainment businesses.
As of May 2025, however, 1,080 grants were still open, meaning the agency hadn't accounted for how those funds were used. About two-thirds of those grantees hadn't submitted audits or responded to questions about the use of funds, the report said.
Business Insider revealed last year that at least $200 million from the program went to successful musicians, some of whom used the money for high-end hotels, private jets, and self-enrichment.
By fall 2024, the SBA had identified $544 million in "potentially improper" payments that were supposed to be clawed back from hundreds of recipients, some of whom it determined were never supposed to get a grant in the first place.
The SBA began moving earlier this summer to claw back hundreds of grants. Meredith Lynsey Schade, a theatrical producer who advocated for grantees, said the program has generally been a success, but some grantees were being pursued for clawbacks over issues with paperwork. "These recoupment letters are not necessarily about fraud," she said in an email.
It's not clear whether any celebrities are among those whose grants are being clawed back. SBA emails that Business Insider received via a public information request last year said that about 70% of the grants spotlighted in BI reporting had already been closed out.
Michael Strickland, who runs a lighting company and advocated for the program, said he's been contacted by "hundreds" of people who received clawback letters in recent months.
"I've had managers, I've had agents, I've had venue owners, I've had production people, producers of shows," he said. "There's no single continuity to the rules they're being accused of tripping."
The SBA has struggled to find a way to recover the money, the agency's internal watchdog said in its report.
"As a result of not referring improper payments to the Treasury and not sending demand letters, there is an increased risk that the government will not be able to collect improperly paid SVOG funds."
Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who leads the Senate's small business committee, said people who misused funds from the program should be held accountable. She is backing a bill that would give prosecutors an extra five years to bring charges in cases of SVOG fraud.
"The Biden administration made almost no effort to recover more than $500 million in improper payments dispersed through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program," she said in a statement.