Rapper Sean Kingston and his mother indicted on federal charges in $1M fraud scheme
MIAMI — Rapper and singer Sean Kingston And his mother have been charged in South Florida on federal charges of committing fraud worth more than $1 million.
Kingston, 34, and his mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, made their initial appearance in federal court Friday, according to court records. A grand jury in Miami returned an indictment earlier this month accusing Kingston and his mother of participating in a scheme to defraud victims of expensive specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods through the use of fraudulent documents.
Kingston was booked to Broward County Jail on similar state charges last month following a May 23 arrest at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing. Turner was arrested the same day as her son, when a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
According to the federal indictment, Kingston and Turner falsely claimed to have made wire transfers or other monetary payments for high-priced items when no such transfers occurred. Investigators said Kingston and Turner then kept more than $1 million worth of fraudulently purchased items, despite not paying for them.
Warrants for the state charges show that from October through March, they stole nearly $500,000 worth of jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadilac Escalade dealership, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the custom bed manufacturer.
The Jamaican-American artist had a No. 1 hit in 2007 with “Beautiful Girls” and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie.”
Robert Rosenblatt, an attorney for Kingston and his mother, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. He said earlier that they looked forward to pursuing the charges and were “confident of a successful resolution.”
Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking stolen goods.
His mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 and was sentenced to nearly 1.5 years in prison, federal court documents show.