Connect with us

Government

‘Dumb Money’ cast: Meet the real people behind GameStop’s Reddit rally

Meet the real-world investors, CEOs, and hedge fund managers behind the GameStop short squeeze that inspired ‘Dumb Money’

Published

6 months ago

on

"Dumb Money", which chronicles the infamous GameStop short squeeze of January 2021, was released in theaters across the U.S. on Sept. 29. Starring Paul Dano as Keith Gill, the now-famous Reddit user and hobbyist investor credited with spurring the meme stock's rise to unprecedented heights, the film examines the dramatic short squeeze from a variety of angles.

Prominent characters include Gill, other retail investors and Reddit users who frequented the r/WallStreetBets messageboard, the co-CEOs of digital trading platform Robinhood  (HOOD) - Get Free Report, and some of the hedge fund executives who were eventually forced to capitulate after seeing the value of their short positions plummet during the squeeze.

While the film certainly dramatized aspects of the Reddit-fueled stock surge and its consequences by filling in the blanks where necessary, most of its central characters are based on real people.

Here, we examine "Dumb Money’s" cast and discuss the real-world individuals the film’s central characters are based on.

Keith Gill's videos, which he posted to r/WallStreetBets under the pseudonym u/DeepF**kingValue, convinced the subreddit's users to rally around the stock of struggling video game retailer GameStop. 

SOPA Images/Getty Images

Keith Gill (played by Paul Dano)

Keith Gill, played by Paul Dano, is "Dumb Money’s" central protagonist. In the film, Gill is portrayed as the retail investor’s David to Wall Street’s Goliaths — AKA hedge funds.

In real life, Gill was a middle-class 34-year-old living with his wife and child in Massachusetts. Until his resignation at the peak of the short squeeze in late January 2021, he was a financial analyst at life-insurance brokerage MassMutual who researched and traded stocks on the side, occasionally uploading videos about his stock positions and value investing strategy to YouTube via his “Roaring Kitty” channel.

He posted these videos to the subreddit r/WallStreetBets, a non-traditional investing messageboard focused on large, risky stock trades known colloquially as “YOLOs.”

During 2020, Gill uploaded several videos to the messageboard in which he disclosed his large position in GameStop, claiming the company was undervalued and overshorted by Wall Street’s “smart money” (hedge funds and other institutional investors). He also argued that the company wasn’t losing as much market share to online retailers as the short sellers betting on the brick-and-mortar retailer’s demise seemed to believe.

The subreddit rallied around Gill’s strategy, and soon, the bulk of its users were buying GameStop  (GME) - Get Free Report shares and call options in a collective bid to send the stock “to the moon.” And in the film, just like in the real world, it worked. GME’s stock price surged by around 1,500% in less than a month, and hedge funds were forced to buy back shares at significant losses to cover their short positions.

Overall, the film’s depiction of Gill is fairly accurate. While we can’t know exactly how he spoke and acted with his wife, parents, or brother, all of whom have minor roles in "Dumb Money", the portrayals of his YouTube uploads and testimony to Congress are largely drawn from the source material — cat t-shirts, beer, red headband and all.

The film also depicts Gill as a dedicated runner, often visiting a local track-and-field oval in an attempt to run a 4-minute mile. The real-life Gill was a runner as well, recording a personal-best mile time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds while attending Stonehill College in 2008. Other plot points, such as the death of Gill’s sister, are also true to life.

Pete Davidson played Keith Gill's brother, Kevin, in "Dumb Money," although the real Kevin claims his depiction as a freeloading burnout is far from accurate. 

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

Kevin Gill (played by Pete Davidson)

In "Dumb Money", Kevin, Gill’s younger brother — played by "SNL’s" Pete Davidson — has a fairly significant side-character role.

Gill’s real-world brother claimed on Instagram that his character in the film, who is presented as a pot-smoking, car-borrowing, DoorDash-embezzling, loud-mouthed burnout, bears very little resemblance to its real-world counterpart. Kevin claims that the film was wrong on all counts—he’s always had a car, he detests marijuana, he’s never eaten food out of his customers’ deliveries, and he has a relatively reserved personality.

Gabe Plotkin, who founded and managed Melvin Capital during the GameStop squeeze, bwas played by Seth Rogen in "Dumb Money."

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Gabe Plotkin (played by Seth Rogen)

Gabe Plotkin, depicted by Seth Rogen in "Dumb Money", was also a very real player in the GameStop saga. While many hedge funds lost money on GME shorts, Plotkin’s firm, Melvin Capital, was certainly the hardest hit.

Plotkin had actually been shorting GME via Melvin Capital since he founded the fund in 2014, years before Gill popularized the stock on r/WallStreetBets, and well before the term “meme stock” had emerged as a buzzword in investing circles.

The film dramatizes Plotkin’s slow realization that the retail-trader-driven surge in GameStop’s value posed a real threat to his fund’s short-heavy portfolio, resulting in last-minute requests for bailouts from Citadel and Point 72, other hedge funds run by Plotkin’s associates Ken Griffin and Steve Cohen, respectively. Griffin’s Citadel injected about $2 billion into Melvin, while Cohen’s Point 72 provided around $750 million.

Despite these bailouts, when all was said and done, Melvin ended up losing around $7 billion on its ill-fated GameStop shorts, closing out 2021 with its portfolio down around 39%. Due in part to these losses, Plotkin decided to shutter Melvin Capital in May of the following year, stating "The appropriate next step is to wind down the Funds by fully liquidating the Funds' assets and accounts and returning cash to all investors."

In one of the more memorable lines of the film, when asked by his wife how much money they lost during the previous day, Rogen (as Plotkin) replies, “one billion.”

Ken Griffin, pictured here with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was played by Nick Offerman in "Dumb Money." 

Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

Kenneth C. Griffin (played by Nick Offerman)

Ken Griffin, played by "Parks and Rec’s" Nick Offerman in the film, is a real-life multi-billionaire who operates the hedge fund Citadel, LLC. and is the majority owner of the marker maker Citadel Securities.

As mentioned above, Griffin provided Plotkin’s Melvin Capital with a $2 million dollar cash injection during the GME short squeeze, attracting the ire of Reddit’s retail investors. When Robinhood, the fee-free digital trading app through which many of these individual investors had bought GameStop stock, halted purchases of the video game retailer at the height of the short squeeze, Griffin and Citadel became the subject of even more criticism.

Not only did Griffin’s hedge fund, Citadel, LLC, have a vested interest in seeing GameStop stock plummet due to its position in Melvin Capital — Citadel Securities, Griffin’s market-making firm, was one of the main partners used by Robinhood to complete its users’ buy and sell orders.

Robinhood derived much of its payment-for-order-flow revenue through Citadel Securities, so many viewed the decision to halt buying as a shady move, perhaps done at Griffin’s behest. In fact, records showed that Griffin and Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, had communicated the evening before GameStop buy orders were restricted by the broker, pointing to a potential conflict of interest and widespread accusations of market manipulation.

Whether this was indeed a calculated move or not, a GameStop selloff soon followed as holders of GME began to unload shares in a panic, hoping to lock in their gains before other sellers drove the stock’s price down.

Griffin starkly denied all accusations of wrongdoing when subpoenaed to a congressional hearing about GameStop in February 2021. Interestingly, he had previously donated money to four members of the congressional committee to which he presented his testimony during the GameStop hearing — Andy Barr, French Hill, Bill Huizenga, and Ann Wagner.

Fund manager Steve Cohen, who is played by Vincent D'Onofrio in "Dumb Money," has owned MLB team The Mets since 2012. 

Newsday LLC/Getty Images

Steve Cohen (played by Vincent D'Onofrio)

Steve Cohen, played by Vincent D’Onofrio in "Dumb Money", is the owner of hedge fund Point 72, which he founded in 2014, the same year Gabe Plotkin, who many view as his protegé, founded Melvin Capital.

Cohen’s Point 72 injected $750 million into Melvin during the GameStop surge, a move that resulted in a barrage of online threats against him that culminated in his deactivating his Twitter account. Interestingly, his firm now has a long position in GameStop (despite betting against the retailer in 2021) according to a February 2023 filing.

Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt co-founded fee-free investing app Robinhood in 2013. 

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Vlad Tenev (played by Sebastian Stan) and Baiju Bhatt (played by Rushi Kota)

Vlad Tenev, the current CEO of Robinhood, is played by Sebastian Stan in the film, which depicts him and former co-CEO Baiju Bhatt (played by Rushi Kota) in a less-than-favorable light. The young tech magnates are portrayed as out of touch, referencing the Occupy Wall Street movement as their inspiration for creating a fee-free trading app but appearing to be unfamiliar with the movement’s actual goals and values.

In reality, Bhatt, who co-founded Robinhood with Tenev, stepped down as co-CEO in November 2020, before the primary portion of the Gamestop short squeeze really began, although he remains the company’s chief creative officer.

In the film, as in reality, Tenev sidesteps allegations of a conspiracy with Citadel CEO Griffin to shut down GME buying on Robinhood to tank the stock price during his address to Congress. During his testimony, Tenev stated that GME buy orders were restricted “In order to protect the firm and protect our customers.” He went on to claim that the move was made in order to meet the SEC’s net capital requirements, which “can be substantial in the current environment where there’s a lot of volatility and a lot of concentrated activity in these names that have been going viral on social media.”

Many r/WallStreetBets users doubted the veracity of Tenev’s claims, resulting in an exodus toward other digital brokerages among the subreddit’s users in the wake of the hearing. Nevertheless, Robinhood remains a major name in the trading industry, boasting 10.8 million active users and 23 million funded accounts as of 2022. The company went public at $38 per share in July 2021 but didn’t see a profitable quarter until Q2 2023. As of this article’s last update, Robinhood stock was trading at $9.72 per share.

How accurate is 'Dumb Money'?

Overall, "Dumb Money" is a successful and fairly accurate retelling of the unprecedented meme-stock saga that forced institutional investors to finally start taking retail investors seriously. Gill, the hedge fund managers, and Robinhood’s executives, all of whom are very real people, feature most prominently in the plot.

The film also follows several retail investors who took part in the short squeeze, racking up oversized gains, and in some cases, waiting too long to sell and watching their positions lose the bulk of their value. These portrayals, however, are far more fictionalized, although elements of these characters are supposedly drawn from real investors’ stories.

It’s now up to moviegoers worldwide to determine whether "Dumb Money" will join the ranks of other highly successful Wall Street blockbusters like "The Big Short" and "The Wolf of Wall Street". 

Read More

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

International

‘Excess Mortality Skyrocketed’: Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack ‘Criminal’ COVID Response

‘Excess Mortality Skyrocketed’: Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack ‘Criminal’ COVID Response

As the global pandemic unfolded, government-funded…

Published

6 hours ago

on

March 14, 2024

By

'Excess Mortality Skyrocketed': Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack 'Criminal' COVID Response

As the global pandemic unfolded, government-funded experimental vaccines were hastily developed for a virus which primarily killed the old and fat (and those with other obvious comorbidities), and an aggressive, global campaign to coerce billions into injecting them ensued.

Then there were the lockdowns - with some countries (New Zealand, for example) building internment camps for those who tested positive for Covid-19, and others such as China welding entire apartment buildings shut to trap people inside.

It was an egregious and unnecessary response to a virus that, while highly virulent, was survivable by the vast majority of the general population.

Oh, and the vaccines, which governments are still pushing, didn't work as advertised to the point where health officials changed the definition of "vaccine" multiple times.

Tucker Carlson recently sat down with Dr. Pierre Kory, a critical care specialist and vocal critic of vaccines. The two had a wide-ranging discussion, which included vaccine safety and efficacy, excess mortality, demographic impacts of the virus, big pharma, and the professional price Kory has paid for speaking out.

Keep reading below, or if you have roughly 50 minutes, watch it in its entirety for free on X:

"Do we have any real sense of what the cost, the physical cost to the country and world has been of those vaccines?" Carlson asked, kicking off the interview.

"I do think we have some understanding of the cost. I mean, I think, you know, you're aware of the work of of Ed Dowd, who's put together a team and looked, analytically at a lot of the epidemiologic data," Kory replied. "I mean, time with that vaccination rollout is when all of the numbers started going sideways, the excess mortality started to skyrocket."

When asked "what kind of death toll are we looking at?", Kory responded "...in 2023 alone, in the first nine months, we had what's called an excess mortality of 158,000 Americans," adding "But this is in 2023. I mean, we've  had Omicron now for two years, which is a mild variant. Not that many go to the hospital."

'Safe and Effective'

Tucker also asked Kory why the people who claimed the vaccine were "safe and effective" aren't being held criminally liable for abetting the "killing of all these Americans," to which Kory replied: "It’s my kind of belief, looking back, that [safe and effective] was a predetermined conclusion. There was no data to support that, but it was agreed upon that it would be presented as safe and effective."

Carlson and Kory then discussed the different segments of the population that experienced vaccine side effects, with Kory noting an "explosion in dying in the youngest and healthiest sectors of society," adding "And why did the employed fare far worse than those that weren't? And this particularly white collar, white collar, more than gray collar, more than blue collar."

Kory also said that Big Pharma is 'terrified' of Vitamin D because it "threatens the disease model." As journalist The Vigilant Fox notes on X, "Vitamin D showed about a 60% effectiveness against the incidence of COVID-19 in randomized control trials," and "showed about 40-50% effectiveness in reducing the incidence of COVID-19 in observational studies."

Professional costs

Kory - while risking professional suicide by speaking out, has undoubtedly helped save countless lives by advocating for alternate treatments such as Ivermectin.

Kory shared his own experiences of job loss and censorship, highlighting the challenges of advocating for a more nuanced understanding of vaccine safety in an environment often resistant to dissenting voices.

"I wrote a book called The War on Ivermectin and the the genesis of that book," he said, adding "Not only is my expertise on Ivermectin and my vast clinical experience, but and I tell the story before, but I got an email, during this journey from a guy named William B Grant, who's a professor out in California, and he wrote to me this email just one day, my life was going totally sideways because our protocols focused on Ivermectin. I was using a lot in my practice, as were tens of thousands of doctors around the world, to really good benefits. And I was getting attacked, hit jobs in the media, and he wrote me this email on and he said, Dear Dr. Kory, what they're doing to Ivermectin, they've been doing to vitamin D for decades..."

"And it's got five tactics. And these are the five tactics that all industries employ when science emerges, that's inconvenient to their interests. And so I'm just going to give you an example. Ivermectin science was extremely inconvenient to the interests of the pharmaceutical industrial complex. I mean, it threatened the vaccine campaign. It threatened vaccine hesitancy, which was public enemy number one. We know that, that everything, all the propaganda censorship was literally going after something called vaccine hesitancy."

Money makes the world go 'round

Carlson then hit on perhaps the most devious aspect of the relationship between drug companies and the medical establishment, and how special interests completely taint science to the point where public distrust of institutions has spiked in recent years.

"I think all of it starts at the level the medical journals," said Kory. "Because once you have something established in the medical journals as a, let's say, a proven fact or a generally accepted consensus, consensus comes out of the journals."

"I have dozens of rejection letters from investigators around the world who did good trials on ivermectin, tried to publish it. No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. And then the ones that do get in all purportedly prove that ivermectin didn't work," Kory continued.

"So and then when you look at the ones that actually got in and this is where like probably my biggest estrangement and why I don't recognize science and don't trust it anymore, is the trials that flew to publication in the top journals in the world were so brazenly manipulated and corrupted in the design and conduct in, many of us wrote about it. But they flew to publication, and then every time they were published, you saw these huge PR campaigns in the media. New York Times, Boston Globe, L.A. times, ivermectin doesn't work. Latest high quality, rigorous study says. I'm sitting here in my office watching these lies just ripple throughout the media sphere based on fraudulent studies published in the top journals. And that's that's that has changed. Now that's why I say I'm estranged and I don't know what to trust anymore."

Vaccine Injuries

Carlson asked Kory about his clinical experience with vaccine injuries.

"So how this is how I divide, this is just kind of my perception of vaccine injury is that when I use the term vaccine injury, I'm usually referring to what I call a single organ problem, like pericarditis, myocarditis, stroke, something like that. An autoimmune disease," he replied.

"What I specialize in my practice, is I treat patients with what we call a long Covid long vaxx. It's the same disease, just different triggers, right? One is triggered by Covid, the other one is triggered by the spike protein from the vaccine. Much more common is long vax. The only real differences between the two conditions is that the vaccinated are, on average, sicker and more disabled than the long Covids, with some pretty prominent exceptions to that."

Watch the entire interview above, and you can support Tucker Carlson's endeavors by joining the Tucker Carlson Network here...

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/14/2024 - 16:20

Read More

Continue Reading

International

Shakira’s net worth

After 12 albums, a tax evasion case, and now a towering bronze idol sculpted in her image, how much is Shakira worth more than 4 decades into her care…

Published

11 hours ago

on

March 14, 2024

By

Shakira’s considerable net worth is no surprise, given her massive popularity in Latin America, the U.S., and elsewhere. 

In fact, the belly-dancing contralto queen is the second-wealthiest Latin-America-born pop singer of all time after Gloria Estefan. (Interestingly, Estefan actually helped a young Shakira translate her breakout album “Laundry Service” into English, hugely propelling her stateside success.)

Since releasing her first record at age 13, Shakira has spent decades recording albums in both Spanish and English and performing all over the world. Over the course of her 40+ year career, she helped thrust Latin pop music into the American mainstream, paving the way for the subsequent success of massively popular modern acts like Karol G and Bad Bunny.

In late 2023, a 21-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Shakira, the barefoot belly dancer of Barranquilla, was unveiled at the city's waterfront. The statue was commissioned by the city's former mayor and other leadership.

Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

In December 2023, a 21-foot-tall beachside bronze statue of the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer was unveiled in her Colombian hometown of Barranquilla, making her a permanent fixture in the city’s skyline and cementing her legacy as one of Latin America’s most influential entertainers.

After 12 albums, a plethora of film and television appearances, a highly publicized tax evasion case, and now a towering bronze idol sculpted in her image, how much is Shakira worth? What does her income look like? And how does she spend her money?

Related: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's net worth: How the new TKO Board Member built his wealth from $7

How much is Shakira worth?

In late 2023, Spanish sports and lifestyle publication Marca reported Shakira’s net worth at $400 million, citing Forbes as the figure’s source (although Forbes’ profile page for Shakira does not list a net worth — and didn’t when that article was published).

Most other sources list the singer’s wealth at an estimated $300 million, and almost all of these point to Celebrity Net Worth — a popular but dubious celebrity wealth estimation site — as the source for the figure.

A $300 million net worth would make Shakira the third-richest Latina pop star after Gloria Estefan ($500 million) and Jennifer Lopez ($400 million), and the second-richest Latin-America-born pop singer after Estefan (JLo is Puerto Rican but was born in New York).

Shakira’s income: How much does she make annually?

Entertainers like Shakira don’t have predictable paychecks like ordinary salaried professionals. Instead, annual take-home earnings vary quite a bit depending on each year’s album sales, royalties, film and television appearances, streaming revenue, and other sources of income. As one might expect, Shakira’s earnings have fluctuated quite a bit over the years.

From June 2018 to June 2019, for instance, Shakira was the 10th highest-earning female musician, grossing $35 million, according to Forbes. This wasn’t her first time gracing the top 10, though — back in 2012, she also landed the #10 spot, bringing in $20 million, according to Billboard.

In 2023, Billboard listed Shakira as the 16th-highest-grossing Latin artist of all time.

Shakira performed alongside producer Bizarrap during the 2023 Latin Grammy Awards Gala in Seville.

Photo By Maria Jose Lopez/Europa Press via Getty Images

How much does Shakira make from her concerts and tours?

A large part of Shakira’s wealth comes from her world tours, during which she sometimes sells out massive stadiums and arenas full of passionate fans eager to see her dance and sing live.

According to a 2020 report by Pollstar, she sold over 2.7 million tickets across 190 shows that grossed over $189 million between 2000 and 2020. This landed her the 19th spot on a list of female musicians ranked by touring revenue during that period. In 2023, Billboard reported a more modest touring revenue figure of $108.1 million across 120 shows.

In 2003, Shakira reportedly generated over $4 million from a single show on Valentine’s Day at Foro Sol in Mexico City. 15 years later, in 2018, Shakira grossed around $76.5 million from her El Dorado World Tour, according to Touring Data.

Related: RuPaul's net worth: Everything to know about the cultural icon and force behind 'Drag Race'

How much has Shakira made from her album sales?

According to a 2023 profile in Variety, Shakira has sold over 100 million records throughout her career. “Laundry Service,” the pop icon’s fifth studio album, was her most successful, selling over 13 million copies worldwide, according to TheRichest.

Exactly how much money Shakira has taken home from her album sales is unclear, but in 2008, it was widely reported that she signed a 10-year contract with LiveNation to the tune of between $70 and $100 million to release her subsequent albums and manage her tours.

Shakira and JLo co-headlined the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show in Florida.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

How much did Shakira make from her Super Bowl and World Cup performances?

Shakira co-wrote one of her biggest hits, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” after FIFA selected her to create the official anthem for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. She performed the song, along with several of her existing fan-favorite tracks, during the event’s opening ceremonies. TheThings reported in 2023 that the song generated $1.4 million in revenue, citing Popnable for the figure.

A decade later, 2020’s Superbowl halftime show featured Shakira and Jennifer Lopez as co-headliners with guest performances by Bad Bunny and J Balvin. The 14-minute performance was widely praised as a high-energy celebration of Latin music and dance, but as is typical for Super Bowl shows, neither Shakira nor JLo was compensated beyond expenses and production costs.

The exposure value that comes with performing in the Super Bowl Halftime Show, though, is significant. It is typically the most-watched television event in the U.S. each year, and in 2020, a 30-second Super Bowl ad spot cost between $5 and $6 million.

How much did Shakira make as a coach on “The Voice?”

Shakira served as a team coach on the popular singing competition program “The Voice” during the show’s fourth and sixth seasons. On the show, celebrity musicians coach up-and-coming amateurs in a team-based competition that eventually results in a single winner. In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Shakira’s salary as a coach on “The Voice” was $12 million.

Related: John Cena's net worth: The wrestler-turned-actor's investments, businesses, and more

How does Shakira spend her money?

Shakira doesn’t just make a lot of money — she spends it, too. Like many wealthy entertainers, she’s purchased her share of luxuries, but Barranquilla’s barefoot belly dancer is also a prolific philanthropist, having donated tens of millions to charitable causes throughout her career.

Private island

Back in 2006, she teamed up with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame and Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz to purchase Bonds Cay, a 550-acre island in the Bahamas, which was listed for $16 million at the time.

Along with her two partners in the purchase, Shakira planned to develop the island to feature housing, hotels, and an artists’ retreat designed to host a revolving cast of artists-in-residence. This plan didn’t come to fruition, though, and as of this article’s last update, the island was once again for sale on Vladi Private Islands.

Real estate and vehicles

Like most wealthy celebs, Shakira’s portfolio of high-end playthings also features an array of luxury properties and vehicles, including a home in Barcelona, a villa in Cyprus, a Miami mansion, and a rotating cast of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Philanthropy and charity

Shakira doesn’t just spend her massive wealth on herself; the “Queen of Latin Music” is also a dedicated philanthropist and regularly donates portions of her earnings to the Fundación Pies Descalzos, or “Barefoot Foundation,” a charity she founded in 1997 to “improve the education and social development of children in Colombia, which has suffered decades of conflict.” The foundation focuses on providing meals for children and building and improving educational infrastructure in Shakira’s hometown of Barranquilla as well as four other Colombian communities.

In addition to her efforts with the Fundación Pies Descalzos, Shakira has made a number of other notable donations over the years. In 2007, she diverted a whopping $40 million of her wealth to help rebuild community infrastructure in Peru and Nicaragua in the wake of a devastating 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Later, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Shakira donated a large supply of N95 masks for healthcare workers and ventilators for hospital patients to her hometown of Barranquilla.

Back in 2010, the UN honored Shakira with a medal to recognize her dedication to social justice, at which time the Director General of the International Labour Organization described her as a “true ambassador for children and young people.”

On November 20, 2023 (which was supposed to be her first day of trial), Shakira reached a deal with the prosecution that resulted in a three-year suspended sentence and around $8 million in fines.

Photo by Adria Puig/Anadolu via Getty Images

Shakira’s tax fraud scandal: How much did she pay?

In 2018, prosecutors in Spain initiated a tax evasion case against Shakira, alleging she lived primarily in Spain from 2012 to 2014 and therefore failed to pay around $14.4 million in taxes to the Spanish government. Spanish law requires anyone who is “domiciled” (i.e., living primarily) in Spain for more than half of the year to pay income taxes.

During the period in question, Shakira listed the Bahamas as her primary residence but did spend some time in Spain, as she was dating Gerard Piqué, a professional footballer and Spanish citizen. The couple’s first son, Milan, was also born in Barcelona during this period. 

Shakira maintained that she spent far fewer than 183 days per year in Spain during each of the years in question. In an interview with Elle Magazine, the pop star opined that “Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It's clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what."

Prosecutors in the case sought a fine of almost $26 million and a possible eight-year prison stint, but in November of 2023, Shakira took a deal to close the case, accepting a fine of around $8 million and a three-year suspended sentence to avoid going to trial. In reference to her decision to take the deal, Shakira stated, "While I was determined to defend my innocence in a trial that my lawyers were confident would have ruled in my favour [had the trial proceeded], I have made the decision to finally resolve this matter with the best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight."

How much did the Shakira statue in Barranquilla cost?

In late 2023, a 21-foot-tall bronze likeness of Shakira was unveiled on a waterfront promenade in Barranquilla. The city’s then-mayor, Jaime Pumarejo, commissioned Colombian sculptor Yino Márquez to create the statue of the city’s treasured pop icon, along with a sculpture of the city’s coat of arms.

According to the New York Times, the two sculptures cost the city the equivalent of around $180,000. A plaque at the statue’s base reads, “A heart that composes, hips that don’t lie, an unmatched talent, a voice that moves the masses and bare feet that march for the good of children and humanity.” 

Related: Taylor Swift net worth: The most successful entertainer joins the billionaire's club

Read More

Continue Reading

International

Delta Air Lines adds a new route travelers have been asking for

The new Delta seasonal flight to the popular destination will run daily on a Boeing 767-300.

Published

11 hours ago

on

March 14, 2024

By

Those who have tried to book a flight from North America to Europe in the summer of 2023 know just how high travel demand to the continent has spiked.

At 2.93 billion, visitors to the countries making up the European Union had finally reached pre-pandemic levels last year while North Americans in particular were booking trips to both large metropolises such as Paris and Milan as well as smaller cities growing increasingly popular among tourists.

Related: A popular European city is introducing the highest 'tourist tax' yet

As a result, U.S.-based airlines have been re-evaluating their networks to add more direct routes to smaller European destinations that most travelers would have previously needed to reach by train or transfer flight with a local airline.

The new flight will take place on a Boeing 767-300.

Shutterstock

Delta Air Lines: ‘Glad to offer customers increased choice…’

By the end of March, Delta Air Lines  (DAL)  will be restarting its route between New York’s JFK and Marco Polo International Airport in Venice as well as launching two new flights to Venice from Atlanta. One will start running this month while the other will be added during peak demand in the summer.

More Travel:

“As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Venice is hugely popular with U.S. travelers, and our flights bring valuable tourism and trade opportunities to the city and the region as well as unrivalled opportunities for Venetians looking to explore destinations across the Americas,” Delta’s SVP for Europe Matteo Curcio said in a statement. “We’re glad to offer customers increased choice this summer with flights from New York and additional service from Atlanta.”

The JFK-Venice flight will run on a Boeing 767-300  (BA)  and have 216 seats including higher classes such as Delta One, Delta Premium Select and Delta Comfort Plus.

Delta offers these features on the new flight

Both the New York and Atlanta flights are seasonal routes that will be pulled out of service in October. Both will run daily while the first route will depart New York at 8:55 p.m. and arrive in Venice at 10:15 a.m. local time on the way there, while leaving Venice at 12:15 p.m. to arrive at JFK at 5:05 p.m. on the way back.

According to Delta, this will bring its service to 17 flights from different U.S. cities to Venice during the peak summer period. As with most Delta flights at this point, passengers in all fare classes will have access to free Wi-Fi during the flight.

Those flying in Delta’s highest class or with access through airline status or a credit card will also be able to use the new Delta lounge that is part of the airline’s $12 billion terminal renovation and is slated to open to travelers in the coming months. The space will take up more than 40,000 square feet and have an outdoor terrace.

“Delta One customers can stretch out in a lie-flat seat and enjoy premium amenities like plush bedding made from recycled plastic bottles, more beverage options, and a seasonal chef-curated four-course meal,” Delta said of the new route. “[…] All customers can enjoy a wide selection of in-flight entertainment options and stay connected with Wi-Fi and enjoy free mobile messaging.”

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending