It’s usually not a good idea to brag about breaking the law in a YouTube video. Rapper Nuke Bizzle apparently didn’t realize that when he took to YouTube to boast about getting rich with over $1 million from an unemployment scam.
Nuke Bizzle, otherwise known as Fontrell Antonio Baines, 31, of Memphis, Tennessee, was arrested on Friday on charges of fraudulently applying for more than $1.2 million in jobless benefits, according to U.S. Department of Justice officials.
In a video posted in early September, Baines rapped about doing “my swagger for EDD” and getting rich “go[ing] to the bank with a stack of these” while holding up several envelopes from the Employment Development Department. A second man in the video then raps, “You gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim …”.
The video, titled “EDD,” has racked up some solid traffic, with more than 675,000 views. But unfortunately for Nuke Bizzle, the Feds were included in that viewing group. The Department of Justice said, “Baines bragged about his ability to defraud the EDD in a music video posted on YouTube and in postings to his Instagram account, under the handles “nukebizzle1” and “nukebizzle23.”
According to the criminal complaint, Baines used the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance provision of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to secure at least 92 EDD debit cards preloaded with more than $1.2 million in fraudulent benefits. Investigators said that Baines and his conspirators withdrew or spent more than $700,000 in cash from these cards.
Baines is now being charged with access device fraud, aggravated identity and interstate transportation of stolen property. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in federal prison.
I guess on the bright side, if he is convicted, he will have plenty of time to write his next big hits on scamming Social Security and Medicare.
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