Hip-hop Artist Pleads Guilty to COVID-19 Fraud Scheme

MIAMI – Today, hip-hop artist and music producer Rodney McClain, a/k/a “Money Rod,” a/k/a “$Rod,” 35, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in relation to his COVID-19 relief fraud scheme.

As part of the plea, McClain, of Fulton County, Georgia, admitted in 2020, he caused a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application to be submitted for his company, Dreams Come True Records, LLC, a music production company with its principal place of business in North Miami Beach, Florida.  The PPP application contained materially false information about Dreams Come True Records, LLC’s number of employees and payroll expenses in 2019 and 2020, including two falsified IRS tax forms submitted with the application. McClain received over $600,000 in PPP loan proceeds as a result of this fraudulent loan application, and he spent more than $100,000 of the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds on personal and other impermissible expenses.

McClain, as part of the plea, will have a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of over $113,000 entered against him, and he will forfeit his music rights, master recordings, and music compositions.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 29, before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami.  McClain faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conviction. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Division announced the plea.

IRS-CI, Miami Field Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily R. Stone is prosecuting this case and handling asset forfeiture.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

On September 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud.  The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed multiple instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-covid-19-fraud-strike-force-teams.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 24-cr-20094.

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