Felony and criminal charges have ruined rapping careers such as 6ix9ine’s but some rappers can’t help themselves. Fontrell Antonio Baines aka Nuke Bizzle has landed himself in trouble after outing himself over hustling the California Employment Development Department (EDD). According to the LA Times, the rapper is facing charges of scamming the EDD about $1.2 million.
Stolen Identities
The EDD came into effect at the height of the pandemic when the State of California instituted a tough lockdown to manage the Covid 19 wave of infections.
Bizzle used stolen identities to carry out the elaborate hustling scheme. In a music video on YouTube, he is implicating himself by displaying a stash of envelopes from EDD while rapping about “my swagger for EDD”. He alluded that he was living off the system digging himself into a hole that he may not be able to get himself out of.
Bizzle Is a Repeat Offender
The rapper was arrested by the Las Vegas Metro police and he has been extradited to California. The police found 8 EDD cards of different users in his possession and $49,734 stashed in his car. According to Public Prosecutors, 92 cards have been mailed to Bizzle’s Beverly Hills and Koreatown homes with $1.2 million in benefits. He withdrew $704,000 of the money and the balance is being recovered by authorities.
The 33-year-old is facing additional charges of possessing a semiautomatic gun with 14 rounds at his Hollywood Hills home. According to the prosecutors, he is a repeat offender and the case against him is strong.
The Rapper Is Facing 30 Years in Prison
Bizzie has accepted to plead guilty and is expected to appear at a downtown LA court. The charges will be; aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, and interstate transportation of stolen property. He is facing a maximum of 20 years for these charges and a further 20 years for possession of deadly weapons.
Although Bizzle’s video disclaims that the rap is only for entertainment purposes. Prosecutors are pushing forward in using the video to build a case against him. Celebrities such as Jay Z have been advocating for an end to this trend by prosecutors and it seems that the justice system is unwilling to change.