Justice is being served to Alaskan Bush People stars Billy Bush and Joshua “Bam Bam” Brown for their premeditated crimes of fraud against the state of Alaska and the Permanent Fund from where they stole money. They received about $20,000 in dividends from the fund. This said fund originates from oil revenues and it requires all residents who apply to receive payment from it to live in the state year-round in order to qualify.
The Alaskan Bush People leave the state for long periods of time, sometimes years at a time. Therefore, they do not qualify to receive these funds. This isn’t rocket science, so them playing the “dummy card,” as you will read about below, just isn’t working.
Billy Bush and his son Joshua “Bam Bam” Brown have officially pled guilty to one count of second-degree unsworn falsification. The father-son duo will be serving just 30 days in jail for their crimes. But they will also be held to a few other stipulations as part of their plea deal.
They will have to pay back the dividends they received from the Alaskan Permanent Fund, give up the rights to ever apply for or receive a dividend in the future, add in fines and restitution, then round it out with 40 hours of community service. Four other members of the family were also charged, but they were able to get those charges dropped as part of the plea deal.
Billy Brown gave a statement to FOX411 on why this happened in the first place:
“Alaska’s dividend program has specific requirements for the length of time in the state, and the reasons for being out of Alaska,” he said. “Because of the way we live our lives and the way we often unconventionally travel, I didn’t keep good track of our movements. I accept full responsibility for filing for benefits without confirming that we met the requirements. We are committed to living in Alaska for the long term and we respect the state’s rules. I thought it best to settle to put this behind us.”
Um yeah. Not buying it for a minute. They knew exactly what they were doing. Milking the system as long as they could, getting “free money,” and now they have been caught. They don’t respect the state’s rules by a long shot. Who do they think they are kidding?
As of right now, the Discovery channel has no plans to cancel the show. It is currently on reruns. They will probably take all of this fraud in the news as free publicity and run with it. That’s showbiz!