Fontrell Antonio Baines, 31, goes by the rap name “Nuke Bizzle” and he recently rapped about getting rich through unemployment scams in a music video.
Last week, he was arrested after applying for more than $1.2 million in jobless benefits and using stolen identities in a scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
"Federal prosecutors say that Baines and his co-conspirators fraudulently obtained at least 92 debit cards pre-loaded with more than $1.2 million.
The criminal complaint alleges Baines exploited the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance provision of federal coronavirus relief, or CARES Act, that was supposed to expand unemployment benefits to freelance and gig workers, CBS Los Angeles reports."
According to KCAL-TV in Los Angeles when Baines was arrested last month in Las Vegas, he was found to be in possession of eight debit cards, seven of which were in the names of other people.
The DOJ said in a statement, “Baines possessed and used debit cards pre-loaded with unemployment benefits administered by the California Employment Development Department (EDD).
Baines openly bragged about the fraudulent activity in one of his music videos posted on YouTube. In the video called “EDD”, he boasts about doing “my swagger for EDD” and, holding up a stack of envelopes from EDD, getting rich by “go[ing] to the bank with a stack of these” – presumably a reference to the debit cards that come in the mail. A second rapper in the video intones, “You gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim.”