An Atlanta rapper and social media influencer who posted videos of himself boarding private jets, displaying stacks of cash, and even lighting money on fire has been charged as part of a Trump administration crackdown that has uncovered nearly $42 million in alleged food stamp fraud, officials said Wednesday.
Mercedes Reshard New, 39, known as Shawty Dred, was indicted October 7 on 46 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of aggravated identity theft, and additional charges including SNAP fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Prosecutors allege that between January 2020 and July 2026, New controlled more than 350 fraudulent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program accounts created with stolen identities, having EBT debit cards mailed to multiple Atlanta-area addresses and siphoning roughly $4 million to $4.6 million meant for low-income families.
Vice President JD Vance highlighted the case during a press conference in Cincinnati alongside Attorney General Todd Blanche and other Justice and Agriculture Department officials. The event detailed charges against more than 40 defendants in 13 federal districts as part of a task force effort launched in early September.
“This is a man that we have connected to $4.4 million in fraud against the SNAP program. A guy who is quite literally taking food from the mouths of children so that he can enrich himself,” Vance said. “SNAP exists to help hungry children eat; it does not exist to provide private jets to a guy like Shawty Dred.”
Social media posts from New’s accounts, which have more than 2 million followers, showed him on private jets, posing with luxury vehicles including a Rolls-Royce outside a large home, and handling large stacks of cash. One image depicted him holding a burning dollar bill next to piles of money. Officials said the posts helped investigators connect his lifestyle to the alleged scheme. New’s company, Shawty Dred LLC, was briefly authorized as a SNAP retailer before the USDA revoked the status; he was later arrested locally on allegations of selling EBT cards and ordered replacement cards, according to prosecutors.
Blanche said the $42 million identified in the recent surge could have fed 220,000 Americans for an entire month. Other cases in the sweep included a nearly $30 million scheme involving fake transactions at retail stores and additional prosecutions for identity theft, illegal EBT card sales, and related fraud.
New, who has a prior 2022 arrest on public indecency charges, was taken into custody this month. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Administration officials said the task force will continue pursuing similar cases of alleged waste and fraud in federal benefit programs.
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