At a Cincinnati press conference on Wednesday, the vice president, the attorney general and agriculture officials laid out the latest cases from the administration's anti-fraud task force — including an Atlanta rapper and influencer accused of running a $4.4 million scheme through hundreds of fraudulent debit cards.
Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared at the FBI's Cincinnati field office on Wednesday to unveil the task force's latest haul: nearly $42 million in alleged food stamp fraud and more than 40 defendants charged across a series of cases, according to officials at the event. Blanche put the figure in human terms: "Two-hundred twenty thousand Americans could've eaten for the entire month of October if it were not for this $42 million in fraud." The Agriculture Department's inspector general said the programs were raided "to line the pockets of fraudsters and bankroll other criminal activities like guns and drugs that make American communities less safe."
The case officials highlighted most involves Mercedes New, an Atlanta rapper and influencer known as "Shawty Dred" who has more than two million followers. Prosecutors say he was indicted this month on more than 40 counts, including food stamp fraud, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, over an alleged $4.4 million scheme run through hundreds of fraudulent debit cards; his company, Shawty Dred LLC, operated as a SNAP retailer in 2025 and 2026. He was arrested last week in Las Vegas. Georgia police had arrested him last November as well, accused of selling the cards outside a Walmart. New and the other defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty — the charges are allegations, and each case will be decided in court.
"Two-hundred twenty thousand Americans could've eaten for the entire month of October if it were not for this $42 million in fraud."
The Cincinnati cases go beyond one influencer. Two men, Jorag Yaseen and Rami Kanaan, have been indicted in Ohio over roughly $30 million in fake benefits cards trafficked through Chicago-area stores. Another case involves $2.4 million in baby formula — 124,000 pounds of it — allegedly bought with stolen benefits and resold. Others face charges over crop-insurance claims of up to $1.7 million filed on land and crops valued far below the amounts claimed.
Officials say the task force's running total of uncovered SNAP fraud now stands at $641 million, with more than 1,000 retailers banned from the program and nearly 5,000 suspended and fined a combined $44 million. Recovering the money is the harder part, as Vance himself acknowledged in August: "Getting money back is very hard. Once it's gone out the door, it's very hard to get it back." His case for the crackdown, made Wednesday, was about what the program is for: "SNAP exists to help hungry children eat; it does not exist to provide private jets to a guy like Shawty Dred."