To listen to Nuke Bizzle’s model of occasions, he by no means actually had a lot alternative however to seize as a lot pandemic money as he may steal.
Bizzle, the rap title of Fontrell Baines, is now pleading for leniency from a federal choose who will quickly determine how way more of his life he’ll spend behind bars.
“I by no means had a birthday celebration. I by no means had a traditional household dinner. I’ve by no means been to a marriage, solely funerals and courtroom dates,” Baines instructed a choose in a memo forward of his Dec. 7 sentencing.
His fraud was cocky, to say the least.
He recorded himself sending off stacks of bogus unemployment functions, then posted the footage of his crime on YouTuibe as a rap video titled “EDD,” after California’s jobs company.
“Unemployment so candy,” he sang, whereas his rap companion, Fats Wizza, intoned: “You gotta promote cocaine, I can simply file a declare.”
It was the most important hit of Nuke Bizzle’s profession, and Baines mentioned he had report offers “on the desk.” He blew up so massive that Fox Information’ Tucker Carlson took discover, devoting a part of his Sept. 22 present to Nuke’s video and calling it emblematic of the federal government’s bungling of pandemic unemployment claims.
A day later Baines was stopped by police in Las Vegas and was discovered with unemployment profit cost playing cards in others’ names. Lower than a month later the feds went to arrest him on fraud prices and located him with a Glock .357 pistol, netting him one other cost since as a repeat felon he was not supposed to own a firearm.
“My children love that music and I hate it as a result of they don’t even know what EDD is,” he instructed the choose within the case in a private letter asking for leniency. “This has been the worst two years of my life.”
Prosecutors say the false unemployment circumstances Baines dealt with totaled practically $1.3 million in potential advantages, and greater than $700,000 was really paid out to his tackle earlier than the rip-off got here crashing down.
He’s removed from alone.
The federal authorities paid out roughly $800 billion in pandemic unemployment advantages and a colossal quantity was stolen. One skilled has instructed The Washington Occasions greater than $200 billion was probably siphoned off by fraudsters.
A few of these have been worldwide prison syndicates, however unbiased actors right here within the U.S. additionally noticed greenback indicators within the generosity of taxpayers. They vary from postal staff to jail inmates.
Baines says he by no means supposed to be a part of that. He instructed the choose that he agreed to let his tackle be utilized by buddies who have been scamming the system, and would flip the mail over to them in change for money funds.
However when he found how a lot cash was passing via his fingers within the type of unemployment profit cost playing cards, he “felt performed” by his buddies.
“I began simply taking the playing cards myself and telling them they by no means made it,” he mentioned.
“It was arduous to withstand the cash that I may get from the playing cards particularly when everyone round was doing it,” he mentioned.
His lawyer mentioned Baines ended up with far lower than the greater than $700,000 prosecutors have attributed to him.
It’s robust to sq. that model with the rap video of Baines, which exhibits him dealing with stacks of utility letters. Investigators managed to decipher a return tackle on one of many items of mail Baines is flashing and located a bogus declare had been submitted in that title simply days earlier than the video was posted.
Baines mentioned he bought into rap as an escape from a tough dwelling life. He was born to a mom in jail, was introduced up by an aunt who was hooked on crack cocaine, started to take care of his 4 youthful brothers by age 10, and a few years later was seduced by a babysitter.
He gambled for cash, bought caught up in a gang dust-up in 2008 and bought shot within the leg, his lawyer mentioned. Baines didn’t have medical insurance and his lawyer says that led to him being patched up “superficially” and pushed onto the road with an opiate prescription that fueled an ongoing drug dependancy.
It additionally despatched him to Las Vegas, the place he started rapping, with some success.
Then got here the “EDD” video.
“I made a rap video about it as a result of the rap trade tends in it to glorify crime and I bought caught up in that, however one other factor that rappers rap quite a bit about is jail and now I’m caught up in that too,” he instructed the choose.
Nuke Bizzle’s video had greater than 400,000 views on YouTube on the time Baines was arrested.
The video remains to be accessible on different channels, together with one for co-performer Fats Wizza, the place it has 236,000 views.
Prosecutors requested U.S. District Decide Michael W. Fitzgerald to impose a 96-month sentence, which might cowl not solely the COVID fraud but in addition gun and drug prices. In addition they need the choose to order Baines to repay $704,760.
Baines’ lawyer says he’s been in jail since his arrest and has already suffered, beneath near-total COVID lockdown. He missed his aunt’s demise — his household “instructed him she died of a nervous breakdown after listening to about his arrest — and he’s been away from his 5 youngsters, ages 3 to 12.
The lawyer has requested the choose for a 70-month sentence.
