Just like his stardom and business ventures, Kanye West’s personal finances continue to take a turn, reportedly for the worse. The ex-billionaire now claims he owes the IRS millions of dollars in taxes.
West previously accused Adidas of meddling with his bank accounts and causing $75 million he said he had in the bank to be frozen. Now the disgraced artist, who reportedly has a net worth of $400 million, said he found out they were frozen because he owes $50 million in taxes.
The Plot Thickens
The IRS seized West’s bank accounts after he launched his 2024 presidential bid, Business Insider reported.
During an appearance on a right-wing podcast called “Timcast IRL” on Monday, Nov. 28, West spoke with host Tim Pool about his financial issues. He said that his “finance people” informed him the IRS has frozen his accounts.
West appeared on the podcast with alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos and known white supremacist Nick Fuentes. After revealing the latest news about his money matters, West stormed off the live interview when questioned about remarks he made that were deemed anti-Semitic and that led to several corporations severing ties with him.
“[I] have to pay a lot of taxes,” West said. “I’m talking about literally finding out that they were trying to put me in prison this morning.”
West, who changed his name to Ye, continued, “But I found out — okay, so they froze, they put a $75 million hold on four of my accounts,” he said.”And then they said, you owe a lot of taxes. Took me like six hours to find out how much. A lot — well, around $50 million.”
To make matters more bizarre, the rapper openly admitted he does not understand how tax evasion works, and he is “learn[ing] how to, you know, to count [his money].”
He said, “So now I’m having — I get to actually learn how to run a company. I get to learn how to, you know, to count, really. It’s like I didn’t even know where to put the money.”
As Finurah previously reported, the four common reasons why bank accounts get frozen are: security breaches, suspicious activity, inactivity and unpaid debts.
Major Drop In Financial Status
West also boldly claimed that he was projected to be worth $2 billion until he made his anti-Semitic comments. That claim reportedly has not officially been verified.
The Walkout
According to FOX News, West left the interview because he didn’t want an interview where he’d find he’d need to defend himself.
“I didn’t ask your opinion on it,” Ye fired back on Pool’s anti-Semitism questions. “I don’t care about anybody’s opinion, bro. I lost. They tried to put me in jail, they blocked the $2 billion I had. Like when I told [Louis] Farrakhan … the Jewish people allowed Obama to meet with the minister, you know.”
West also compared his personal experiences and what he describes as negative press coverage to being hosed down and bitten by dogs.
“No one’s gonna denounce the fact that they tried to lock me up,” he said. “Because every time I’m just holding stride, and it’s like, I thought I was more Malcolm X, but I find out I’m more MLK because as I’m getting hosed down every day by the press, and financially, I’m just standing there. And when I found out that they tried to put me in jail, it was like a dog was biting my arm and I almost shed a tear, almost, but I still walked in stride through it.”
