Rapper Who Literally Lit Money On Fire Arrested As Vance Fraud Task Force Uncovers $42 Million In Food Stamp Thefts

WASHINGTON — An Atlanta rapper with a penchant for peeing naked from balconies has been arrested on dozens of fraud charges as part of a Trump administration enforcement campaign aimed at recovering nearly $42 million in food stamps intended for families in need.

Mercedes New, an influencer, rapper and apparently adult content creator in Atlanta who goes by the name Shawty Dred, has for years flaunted his lavish lifestyle on social media by posting photos of trips on private jets, Rolls-Royce and Maybach.

He also shared photos of himself on social media counting large piles of cash – and even set the bills on fire.

Between January 2020 and July 2026, the 39-year-old rapper allegedly plundered funding for the state-administered Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by creating more than 350 fake accounts based on stolen identities with the Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS).

The flamboyant rapper, who wears blingy necklaces and poses in front of mansions, then allegedly obtained hundreds of fraudulent SNAP EBT debit cards by mailing them to several addresses in the Atlanta metro area.

He then sold them on the street for cash or used them in his own business, Shawty Dred LLC, after starting it as a SNAP retailer.

While running what turned out to be a $4.6 million fraudulent scheme, the social media sensation would take to Instagram or TikTok to taunt his viewers as “broke motherfuckers” while he spent the alleged ill-gotten gains on vacations, clothes and jewelry.

Earlier this month, prosecutors charged New with 46 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of food stamp fraud, making him one of more than 40 defendants indicted by federal prosecutors in recent weeks for defrauding SNAP and related programs.

“Two hundred and twenty thousand Americans could have eaten for the entire month of October without this $42 million fraud,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “We have charged men and women in 13 different districts over the past seven weeks, and this effort will continue for as long as it takes. »

Vice President JD Vance and members of the Departments of Justice and Agriculture held a news conference in Cincinnati on Wednesday to highlight the case — with U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector General John Walk joking, “There’s nothing ‘new’ under the sun.”

“SNAP exists to help hungry children eat; it doesn’t exist to provide private jets for a guy like Shawty Dred,” Vance said. “I understand he called almost 9,000 times and allegedly took advantage of the benefits spread across 350 accounts, collected them for himself, and then enriched himself in the process.”

“Part of what helped us identify Shawty Dred is the fact that the guy posts videos on Instagram, and we’re able to connect the money that he makes with the money that he then uses to go buy seats on private jets and all these other things,” he said.

New, who has more than 2 million followers on Instagram and boasts on his profile that he has more “jewelry” and “Rolls-Royces than your favorite rapper,” was previously arrested in 2022 for urinating on his apartment balcony while completely naked.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of public indecency in 2024 and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service.

“I’m famous! I’m on TV, man,” New allegedly told officers during his arrest four years ago, maintaining his innocence, according to Channel 2 Action News. “Neighbors said it was so bad that they thought about using an umbrella when walking on the sidewalk,” the outlet noted.

Local police in Georgia also arrested New last November outside a Walmart for selling SNAP EBT debit cards to passersby.

In a 2021 interview with media outlet Hip Hop Since 1987, he boasted that Shawty Dred LLC had made so much money that he intended to “open a total of three restaurants and a strip club in Atlanta, Georgia under my brands.”

When asked about his other future plans, the rapper said he was planning “world domination lol” and “having $100 million in my bank account.”

The USDA inspector general said SNAP and other related programs were also raided “to line the pockets of fraudsters and fund other criminal activities like guns and drugs that make American communities less safe.”

While New was arrested last Tuesday in Las Vegas, two other alleged SNAP fraudsters – Jorag Yaseen and Rami Kanaan – were indicted in Ohio federal court for allegedly stealing nearly $30 million in fake electronic benefits transfer (EBT) transactions through their Chicago-based grocery retail stores.

Grocers allowed accomplices of a criminal organization that stole “thousands of Ohio SNAP participants” EBT account information “to be fraudulently processed, scanned or swiped using
their respective point-of-sale devices” in their Illinois stores.

Other defendants were indicted in September for also selling EBT cards, submitting false crop insurance applications of up to $1.7 million to the USDA, and running a racket that used $2.4 million in fraudulently obtained food stamps to purchase more than 124,000 pounds of baby formula and then resold them for a profit on the black market.

Suspected fraudsters from Yemen who now live in Ohio, Michigan and New York state have also been accused of stealing $1 million in food stamps to pay for marijuana or exchange EBT card values ​​for cash.

Fernandez Guzman, a national of the Dominican Republic, also stole more than $22,000 in SNAP benefits, more than $98,000 in MassHealth benefits, and more than $45,500 in Section 8 housing benefits – before being accused of using fake IDs and driver’s licenses in three states to do so.

“He is suspected of being in the United States illegally,” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said. “This is one of several cases charged this year in which suspected illegal aliens steal the identities of Americans and then steal from America.”

“These schemes have siphoned millions of dollars from taxpayers and deprived struggling Americans of the benefits they depend on so that fraudsters can use them for their own selfish purposes,” Blanche said in a statement.

One of the victims, the AG noted, had to take out a loan to be able to feed her children because her debit card funds had been drained by fraudsters.