Maurice “Mo” Fayne, a reality television star, took a ridiculous amount of your tax dollars and spent it on lavish items. Fayne, who appears on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, did more than take advantage of the United States government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was meant to assist small businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic. He took a $2 million dollar loan and bought himself a Rolls Royce, diamond jewelry, and also used the money to pay off child support.
Fayne, known as ‘Arkansas Mo’ on the reality show, owns a trucking company called ‘Flame Trucking,’ which consists of three trucks and three truck drivers. However, Fayne submitted a PPP loan application in mid-April and stated that he had 107 employees and an average payroll of nearly $1.5 million dollars. On April 23, he received his loan of $2 million dollars.
With the newly acquired tax dollars, Arkansas Mo went on a spending spree. Among the items he bought were a 2019 Rolls-Royce Wraith worth nearly $400,000, a $3,750 diamond ring, a $52,000 diamond-studded Rolex Presidential watch, and a $24,000 diamond bracelet, according to AARP. Furthermore, he used $40,000 in child support and nearly $80,000 in cash.
Fortunately, the FBI was able to arrest Fayne and confiscate his newly purchased goods and dollars in hand.
Wasted Dollars
In late-March, President Donald Trump signed the highly controversial Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES). This $2 trillion stimulus bill, passed by Congress, was the most expensive bill in American history. Although the bill was designed for small businesses to receive emergency loans, many businesses and individuals, like Fayne, seemed to be taking advantage of the bill.
Legendary National Basketball Association franchise, the Los Angeles Lakers, applied for and received a PPP loan for $4.6 million dollars. The Lakers are worth $4.4 billion dollars and are owned by the Buss family. Jeanie Buss, one of six of the Buss children, is personally worth $500 million dollars herself. After a public outcry of the Lakers’ PPP loan, the organization returned the money.
The Lakers issued a statement that said, “The Lakers qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll Protection Program. However, once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be directed to those most in need.”
United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin also spoke out against the Lakers by calling their dealings “outrageous.”
"I never expected in a million years that the @Lakers–which I'm a big fan of the team–but I'm not a big fan of the fact that they took a $4.6M loan. I think that's outrageous, and I'm glad they returned it or they would have had liability," says @stevenmnuchin1 pic.twitter.com/igJBmFVKcB
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 28, 2020
Harvard University, which has an astounding $40 billion dollar endowment fund, was exposed for receiving $9 million dollars in stimulus funds. The Ivy League school returned the money, which was noted by Trump.
Harvard should give back the money now. Their whole “endowment” system should be looked at! https://t.co/LcjOcsnCWT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020
The CARES Act was implemented to help ordinary Americans go through the tough times of state implemented shutdowns due to the Coronavirus panic. Shameful how individuals and organizations like Fayne, the Lakers, and Harvard University choose to abuse the system while tens of millions have become unemployed.
GD, don’t they have a task force to oversee where and to who this money is going to? seems like A LOT OF BIG BUSINESSES are getting money when they shouldn’t have even applied? are there going to be arrests for fraud?