Despite being worth an estimated $500 million, actor Robert De Niro took coronavirus money from the government to pay for expenses at his various restaurants across the globe, including his London-based luxury restaurant Nobu.
The Daily Mail reported on De Niro’s expensive London eatery, Nobu, to which celebrities flock when they are in the U.K.’s capital city. According to the paper, the 77-year-old star took enough government relief money to cover 80 percent of the high-end restaurant’s operating costs. U.K. government officials revealed the award of coronavirus relief money to De Niro’s restaurant.
The government report notes: “The restaurant has been closed since March 21, 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.K., and reopened on May 6, 2020, to operate in providing a limited restaurant service that can be operated by the company under the recommended health and safety guidelines imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic such as food take away service.”
Nobu told the government that it expected “a significant decrease in profitability due to materially reduced revenues in 2020.”
John O’Connell, the CEO of the watchdog group Taxpayers’ Alliance, reminded readers that the relief money, while helpful to struggling companies, “ultimately comes from taxpayers, and support should only be sought if it’s really needed.”- READ MORE
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