Rapper who bragged in music video about getting rich from EDD fraud agrees to plea deal
A Memphis rapper who boasted in a YouTube music video that he used pandemic-related unemployment benefits fraud to get rich has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud and firearms charges, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Fontrell Antonio Baines, 33, aka "Nuke Bizzle," agreed to plead guilty one count of mail fraud and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. He is expected to enter his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles soon.
According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint in the case, Baines posted a music video on YouTube and Instagram called "EDD," in which he boasts about doing "my swagger for EDD" and holding up a stack of EDD envelopes, rapping about getting rich by "go to the bank with a stack of these," which authorities say is a reference to the debit cards that came in the mail.
Baines admitted in his plea agreement to exploiting the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance provisions of the CARES Acts between July and September of 2020, using stolen identities to apply for unemployment benefits that he had sent to addresses in Beverly Hills and Koreatown. One of those stolen identities included that of a Missouri man who briefly attended school, but never worked, in California, whose name was on the debit card that Baines used to withdraw approximately $2,500 according to federal officials.
Baines admitted to filing 92 fraudulent claims with EDD, attempting to defraud the U.S. Treasury of more than $1.3 million. The actual losses totaled at least $704,760, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Baines also admitted to illegally possessing a semi-automatic pistol with 14 rounds of ammunition at the Hollywood Hills home he lived in during October of 2020. Due to a 2011 conviction in Tennessee for unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and a 2014 conviction in Nevada federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm, Baines is prohibited from possessing a firearm.
Baines has been in federal custody since he was arrested in October 2020. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the mail fraud count, and 10 years in federal prison for the unlawful firearm and ammunition possession count. Prosecutors say he has also agreed to forfeit funds totaling $56,750 that was previously seized by law enforcement.
