Rapper who bragged about Covid relief fraud sentenced to over 6 years

A Memphis rapper who boasted about committing Covid-19 relief fraud in a music video was sentenced to over six years in prison Wednesday, prosecutors said.

The 77-month sentence also included guilty pleas in separate cases to gun and drug counts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said.

Fontrell Antonio Baines, who goes by “Nuke Bizzle,” stole more than $700,000 in Covid-19 unemployment benefits, in a scheme in which other people’s names or stolen identities were used, prosecutors said.

Baines, 33, bragged about the fraud in videos on YouTube and Instagram, according to court documents. The fraud went from at least July 2020 to September of that year.

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A song posted online in September 2020 was titled “EDD,” which is the name of California’s Employment Development Department in charge of unemployment payments.

The video, cited by prosecutors in court documents, features handfuls of $100 bills, and people checking the mail and typing on laptops. At one point another performer raps, “You gotta sell cocaine, I can just file a claim.”

Federal public defenders representing Baines declined to comment Wednesday.

In addition to the Covid fraud case, Baines pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, and possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said.

Baines in a letter to the judge said he has remorse. “Everyday that I think about what I did I regret my actions and the impact my crime had on others,” he wrote.

In addition to the prison sentence, Baines was was also ordered to pay $704,760 in restitution.

Congress approved massive financial resources to help those impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which shut down large parts of the economy.

The U.S. Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General has estimated that there was $872.5 billion in pandemic unemployment insurance funding — and at least $163 billion in pandemic UI benefits could have been paid improperly, including through fraud.