Atlanta, GA
‘Rich and Unemployed’ podcaster sentenced for $3.8M scheme
Jonathan Dupiton attends Invest Fest 2024 at Guardian Works on August 23, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Julia Beverly/WireImage)
ATLANTA – An Atlanta podcaster has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison after being convicted of using stolen identities to obtain millions of dollars in unemployment insurance benefits.
Jonathan Dupiton, who hosts the “Rich and Unemployed” podcast, is heading back to prison after pleading guilty on Jan. 13 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in front of U.S. District Judge Victoria M. Calvert.
The 36-year-old was ordered to spend seven years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He will also be forced to pay restitution in an amount which has not been revealed.
The backstory:
Prosecutors say that in 2020, Dupiton was completing a federal sentence at a halfway house for a previous fraud conviction targeting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program when the crimes occurred. Prosecutors say he organized a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme that targeted California’s Unemployment Insurance (“UI”) benefits program that began in July 2020 and continued through early 2021.
The program provided temporary financial assistance to lawful workers who were unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the scheme, he obtained stolen identities of hundreds of unwitting individuals and filed claims in California, using a VPN to mask his actual online location.
After the claims were approved, he and his co-conspirators would route the benefits’ debit cards to a North Georgia mailing address, including his own address. He would then withdraw the money from ATMs, mostly in metro Atlanta.
By the numbers:
In all, prosecutors say that he duped the federal government out of $3.8 million, of which he was able to withdraw about $2 million.
Dig deeper:
On Dupiton’s podcast, he explains that his motto is “F.R.A.U.D. is Dope,” with F.R.A.U.D. being a “Finally Rich After Unstoppable Determination.”
What they’re saying:
“During the pandemic, while citizens were struggling with job loss and trying to make ends meet, Dupiton stole unemployment benefits by submitting false applications using hundreds of stolen identities,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “His sentence underscores that anyone who seeks to exploit taxpayer-funded programs will be aggressively prosecuted and face substantial prison time.”
“Jonathan Dupiton orchestrated a brazen scheme to steal millions in unemployment benefits using the stolen identities of innocent victims, all while already serving a sentence for fraud,” said Marlo Graham, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “At a time when Americans were facing unprecedented financial hardship, he chose to exploit a critical safety net for personal gain. The FBI remains committed to identifying and holding accountable those who abuse public assistance programs and undermine trust in systems designed to help those in need.”
“Jonathan Dupiton stole identities and filed hundreds of fraudulent claims to steal nearly $3 million in unemployment benefits meant for struggling Americans,” said Anthony P. D’Esposito, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Labor. “His sentencing sends a strong message: if you exploit federal programs and steal from taxpayers, my office will relentlessly pursue you. We work hand-in-hand with our law enforcement partners and have zero tolerance for fraud. We will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”
“Dupiton’s fraud stole critical unemployment benefits from Americans who needed them most,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Maisha Horton, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office. “IRS CI special agents remain vigilant in protecting taxpayer dollars and will continue to hold accountable those who exploit public programs for personal gain.”
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, which detailed the sentencing and the investigation by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Department of Labor.
Switchman Hall has opened in Peoplestown, a neighborhood that could be the next frontier of development.
Terminal South, a mixed-use development in Peoplestown that opened earlier this year, includes retail businesses and a food hall called Switchman Hall. Switchman Hall was supposed to open in 2024 but kept getting pushed back as vendors struggled with delays with permitting and the time it takes to build restaurant infrastructure from scratch, an official with the developer said. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
When Olga Alvarez’s 70-year-old uncle came to visit her new food stall, Staxx, at the Terminal South development in Peoplestown, he recognized the building. Or at least, he recognized what it had been.
The collection of buildings at 1161 Ridge Ave. SW have been around for more than 80 years, according to property records. When developer Stafford closed on the property around 2023, it was being used for warehouse storage, said Melissa Ahrendt, executive director of real estate at Stafford.
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Mixed-use development Terminal South opened in Peoplestown this year with a food hall, Switchman Hall. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
A long road to opening
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Atlanta native Olga Alvarez has opened Staxx in Switchman Hall with smoothies and toasts. (Courtesy)
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In this photo from February, Andy Bibliowicz’s concept Te Quiero Tacos is on the left, but it will no longer open in the food hall. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
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Ali Lemma (right, standing), owner and chef at Ruki’s Kitchen, serves food at Terminal South on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
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Will a rising tide raise all ships?
htiw ot eht ksat .doohrobhgien dah gnipoleved gnitcennoc rehtona :hsilpmocca lanimreT ,htuoS nwotselpoeP sediseB tdnerhA
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Terminal South has said it will staff its security and janitorial crew with employees from the neighborhood. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
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Olivia Wakim is a digital content producer on the food and dining team. She joined the AJC as an intern in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree. While in school, she reported for The Red & Black, Grady Newsource and the Marietta Daily Journal.
Officers with the Atlanta Police Department say they arrested dozens of vendors during a raid of a so-called “marijuana pop-up event” over the weekend.
Authorities say the event, scheduled at for Saturday at the warehouse on Ted Turner Drive SW, had over 1,400 registered attendees.
According to authorities, the Atlanta Police Department began its investigation, later titled “Operation No Smoke,” after receiving an anonymous tip about “large-scale marijuana pop-up events” in February.
When officers and Fulton County deputies arrived at the scene before the event was supposed to start, they say they found multiple vendors setting up and customers waiting at the location. Footage shared by the department showed many trying to escape police through the warehouse’s back door and running across nearby roofs.
Once police were able to get inside the warehouse, they say they identified 24 separate vendor stands.
In total, investigators say they seized 1,220 pounds of raw marijuana, 391 pounds of THC edibles, 29 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, 15 firearms, nine vehicles, and more than $32,000 in cash.
Officers arrested 40 suspects, including the event’s organizer. Because the event was shut down before it started, officials say the majority of those arrested were vendors.
Two suspects were injured while attempting to run away from police, officers said. They received medical aid at the scene.
Authorities say they believe vendors from 11 different states had gathered to sell drugs at the meet-up.
During a press conference, police reiterated that marijuana is illegal in Georgia and argued that the wholesale sale of the drug could lead and has led to violence.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
In the ’90s, when I was new to Atlanta, I found my way to the Atlanta Cuban Club in Doraville. On Saturday nights, it was a place to eat, dance, and listen to stories of life in Cuba before the Castro Revolution. The scene felt straight out of Miami, with a touch of Southern charm. But, about five years ago, the club closed its doors.
“I miss having a place that feels like ours,” my friend Karina Reoyo, a fellow Cuban American from Miami, tells me. “There’s nothing like that here anymore.”
Like me, Reoyo grew up in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami, where our Cuban roots showed in everything—from weekday meals to our parents’ stories about the island. She moved to metro Atlanta seven years ago, and I moved back in 2024, after first living here as a graduate student at Mercer University in DeKalb County. Now, without the Cuban Club to guide us, we’ve kept our roots alive the way we know best: through food.
And we’re not alone.
There’s a growing network of Cuban Atlantans crisscrossing the city like detectives on a hot trail, chasing down leads. We’ll drive 45 minutes for a proper pastelito, a flaky pastry filled with guava and softened, sweetened cream cheese; ground beef; or another classic rendition (like coconut). If they’re “just like they make them in Miami,” then we’ll share our finds with like-minded food sleuths we meet through friends, at PTA meetings, or even at the gas station.
If a Publix, like the one on West Paces Ferry Road, has stocked up on Materva (the sweet, slightly herbal Cuban soda made from yerba mate), then errands will be rerouted for an emergency grocery-store run. And, if Kroger, like the one on Dallas Acworth Highway in Paulding County, puts five-pound bags of frozen yuca—a starchy root vegetable served at most Cuban meals—on sale (which hasn’t happened yet this year), watch out! We’ll be there ready with two shopping carts, as if it’s Black Friday.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Photograph by Ben Rollins
It hasn’t always been this way. Havana Sandwich Shop co-owner Debbie Benedit says there was a time when few people in Atlanta were familiar with Cuban food. When she and her late husband, Cuban-born Eddie Benedit, opened their Buford Highway restaurant in 1976, Cuban fare was often mistaken for Mexican cuisine.
She says customers would ask, “Where are the tacos? Where’s the salsa? Why isn’t this spicy?” Then she’d have to provide a quick culinary lesson. “We’d explain that Cuban food isn’t spicy. It’s olive oil, garlic, beans, rice, citrus, and vinegar,” she says. Cuban cuisine blends Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences. It’s shaped by the island’s tropical climate and the ingredients that thrive there, including sour oranges, lemons, limes, root vegetables, and plantains.
“Things are different now,” Benedit says, adding that more Atlantans are seeking out Cuban flavors. The area’s growing Cuban population may explain the culinary shift. According to The Atlanta Regional Commission, Cubans are the fourth-largest Caribbean-born group in the area, and their numbers have more than quadrupled in counties such as Forsyth, Henry, and Gwinnett since 2010.
When Miami-raised Stacie Antich moved to Atlanta in 2007, she craved pastelitos, but there was a problem: “Pastelito recipes weren’t on Pinterest or Instagram,” she says. “You didn’t even know what was in them. I had to work from memory.”
Photograph by Ben Rollins
In 2016, she opened Buena Gente Cuban Bakery food truck, serving up her perfected pastelitos, empanadas, croquetas, and other favorites. Then, in 2020, Antich cut the ribbon on a brick-and-mortar bakery of the same name in North Decatur; the shop is bright and pink, just as her food truck was, with freshly baked pastries in a welcoming display case. “This would be considered a fancy bakery in Miami,” she says with a smile.
Buena Gente’s pastelitos are flaky, golden, and sweet, with delicate layers that break apart with each bite. And they come in a few distinct shapes: a circle for meat, a rectangle for guava, and a rolled cigar shape for cream cheese alone—an unspoken code for Cuban pastry lovers. The pastelitos de queso (cheese pastries), my go-to every time, are indeed just like the ones sold from the ventanitas (walk-up windows at neighborhood restaurants) in Miami.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Photograph by Ben Rollins
In Roswell, Lazaro’s Cuban Cuisine offers a proper sit-down meal wrapped in nostalgia, with Cuban memorabilia throughout. A black-and-white photo of the I Love Lucy star Desi Arnaz (surely Cuba’s best-known expat) hangs directly across from the front door; I even found a bottle of Agua de Violeta in the bathroom, a nod to the abuelitas who douse the floral cologne all over babies.
Cuban-born chef and owner Lazaro Tenreiro, who once owned jewelry stores in the metro area, also says he missed the food he grew up with before he opened his own eatery. “When I opened the restaurant in 2012, it was really a passion project. I wanted food my kids and my family would eat—so it had to be good,” he says.
Lazaro’s frijoles negros (black beans) are exactly how I was taught to make them: rich with garlic, onions, and a hint of cumin. And the vegan picadillo (a clever twist on our traditional ground beef dish) is a tasty surprise, with ground green-plantain peel cooked with peppers, onions, and Manzanilla olives.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Photograph by Ben Rollins
In Marietta Square, a popular spot to take my kids for a quick, authentic meal is D’Cuban Cafe, which has other locations around metro Atlanta. Colombian co-owner Nicolas Angel says his cousin, D’Cuban co-owner Lucas Mejia Angel, also from Colombia, fell in love with Cuban food during a trip to Miami and brought those flavors back to Atlanta.
Though the D’Cuban menu is fast-casual, everything is made from scratch daily. A bowl of ropa vieja (“old clothes” in Spanish) comes with shredded beef simmered in a garlicky tomato sauce, served alongside black beans, white rice, and perfectly sweet maduros (ripened plantains).
Of course, Papi’s Cuban Grill is still my top pick when Cuban relatives come to town. The Kennesaw location brings back memories of the casual spots we Miamians grew up with. When my family and I walk in the door, we’re transported to the famed Versailles restaurant on Calle Ocho as the aroma of sofrito—the base of most Cuban dishes, comprising the holy trinity of onions, garlic, and green peppers—fills the air. And the fried yuca appetizer, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, is even better than the one I grew up eating.
Meanwhile, in Paulding County, my friend Karina’s husband, Carell Rodriguez—who is also Cuban and from Miami—is reviving the spirit of the Cuban Club by guest-teaching rueda de casino, a form of Cuban salsa, at Rosa Negra restaurant in Dallas. “Rosa Negra is Latin-infused, and not necessarily Cuban food,” Rodriguez tells me. “I do, nonetheless, enjoy their chicharrones (crispy fried pork), empanadas, and tostones (twice-fried, smashed plantain slices). They remind me of home.”
After class, he unwinds with a mojito. “A mojito is basically Cuba in a glass,” he says. “It’s light, refreshing, and nostalgic.” His wife agrees, chiming in, “Their mojitos are better than the ones in Miami.”
I can’t vouch for their mojitos (not yet, anyway). But in many ways, Atlanta’s Cuban finds are better than what we left behind. Maybe it’s the chase that makes them more satisfying. Or maybe it’s just the joy of tasting home, right when you need it most.
This article appears in our April 2026 issue.
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