LOS ANGELES – A rapper who boasted in a YouTube music video about getting rich by committing pandemic-related unemployment benefits fraud has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud and firearms charges, the Justice Department announced today.
Fontrell Antonio Baines, 33, a.k.a. “Nuke Bizzle,” of Memphis, Tennessee, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.
Baines is expected to plead guilty to the charges in the coming days in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
According to his plea agreement, from July 2020 to September 2020, Baines unlawfully exploited the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provisions of the CARES Act to obtain unemployment insurance money to which he was not entitled. Congress implemented the PUA provisions to expand access to unemployment benefits to self-employed workers, independent contractors, and others who would not otherwise be eligible. Baines abused the program to obtain unemployment benefits administered by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) in the names of third parties, including identity theft victims.
The applications for these benefits listed addresses to which Baines had access in Beverly Hills and Koreatown. As a result, Baines was able to take possession of and use the debit cards that EDD…
