Video After The Jump
A rapper who posted a YouTube video bragging about bilking California’s unemployment system was charged Friday with doing just that.
Prosecutors say Nuke Bizzle, whose real name is Fontrell Antonio Baines, was part of a scam that collected at least $1.2 million in bogus payments from California, using the coronavirus pandemic to rack up the cash.
In the video, titled EDD, for California’s Employment Development Division, the rapper shows himself going to the mailbox with stacks of applications, and bragging that “you gotta sell cocaine, I just file a claim.”
The video, where he’s joined by fellow rapper Fat Wizza, even gives a shout-out to President Trump, who signed the law making it easier to claim unemployment during the pandemic and boosting the weekly cash payments.”
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson featured Mr. Baines‘ video on his show Sept. 22, in a segment about welfare fraud.
A day later, Mr. Baines was arrested by police in Las Vegas. Police said he was in possession of seven bogus unemployment benefit cards in six other people’s names with him.
Federal investigators have since tied him and “co-schemers” to 92 cards.
Investigators said someone added a disclaimer to the YouTube video in the last few saying it “was created with props and was made for entertainment purposes.”
But at one point in the video an application is shown — and it turns out a bogus application was filed under that name, according to the charges filed.
Even before this week’s federal arrest, some commenters on YouTube had sensed something was amiss.
“I have never seen a singer become so committed to their singing before,” wrote one.
By Friday night, commenters were ready to convict Mr. Baines.
Source: Washington Times
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