In case you weren’t aware, it’s actually extremely difficult for musical artists to earn a living in 2019. Or any artist, really. So it’s not unusual that someone like Chad Focus, whose single “Dance With Me†ended up on the Billboard “Dance Club Songs†chart last year and got a T-Pain remix, would have another job outside music as an SEO specialist. What is unusual is that the singer, whose real name is Chad Arrington, took a company card and allegedly charged $4.1 million of expenses associated with his music career to it. According to Pitchfork, between 2015 and 2018, Arrington is alleged to have charged his employer for, among other things: audio equipment, artificially inflated Spotify streams, social-media followers and views, concert tickets, travel, and, of course, actual billboards in Times Square.
But hey, it’s hard to knock a guy who was chasing a dream. Sure, that dream somehow involved $250,000 worth of “purchases related to a bike-sharing business,†but who are we to judge someone else’s dreams? The singer was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 29, and he now faces up to 20 years in prison.