He rapped about stealing unemployment benefits. Now he’ll plead guilty to fraud.
A rapper arrested in Las Vegas after he allegedly boasted about how “he got rich off” of unemployment benefits in a music video is expected to enter a guilty plea for stealing about $700,000 worth of those types of benefits, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
Fontrell Antonio Baines, who uses the moniker “Nuke Bizzle,” is expected to plead to one felony count each of mail fraud and being a felon in possession of a gun, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the central district of California.
In a rap video referenced by authorities, Baines, 33, and another man who used the name “Fat Wizza” posed with laptops, wads of cash and envelopes with the logo from California’s Employment Development Department, which also is featured in a graphic.
“I’ve just been swiping for EDD. Go to the bank, get a stack at least … I made some racks that I couldn’t believe,” the rappers sings in a verse, referencing money.
The fraud is alleged to have occurred starting in spring 2020 and ending in September of that year, according to a criminal complaint.
Baines and unnamed co-conspirators obtained dozens of debit cards under other people’s names, which were shipped to two addresses in Southern California, authorities said.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Baines, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, on Sept. 23, 2020, and found eight debit cards on him, which were registered to other people, the complaint alleges.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.
