Chart topper Sean Kingston jailed with mother over $1million fraud scheme
Sean Kingston has been jailed in Florida after being convicted of a $1million fraud scheme, along with his mother.
The Beautiful Girls singer, born Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mum, Janice Eleanor Turner, were convicted of a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud in March.
He has been sentenced to three and a half years behind bars and was taken into custody immediately, reports the Mirror.
U.S. Judge David Leibowitz also ordered that a restitution hearing should be held within 90 days. Kingston's sentence is to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Leibowitz also sentenced the singer's mum to five years in prison last month, while Sean's sentencing was postponed. The case involved the pair falsely claiming to pay for luxury items, including cars, jewellery, and other high-value goods, by pretending to make bank transfers that were never processed. They managed to fraudulently acquire over $1 million worth of goods and money.
Sean and Janice's trial took place from March 24 to March 28 in Broward County, Florida, and concluded with the jury deliberating for approximately three and a half hours before reaching their verdict, according to reports.
They convicted them of conspiracy and multiple counts of wire fraud. The charges involved defrauding a car dealership out of $160,000 (£123,000) for a Cadillac Escalade, stealing nearly $500,000 (£386,000) worth of jewellery, and obtaining other goods like a custom bed valued at $86,000 (£66,000) without paying for them.
Since the trial, Sean had been under house arrest with an electronic tag and had to pay a bond to be released from jail, while his mother remained in federal custody.
Kingston, 35, and his mother were arrested in May 2024 after a SWAT team raided Kingston's rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Turner was taken into custody during the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California's Mojave Desert, where he was performing.
According to court records, Kingston used social media from April 2023 to March 2024 to arrange purchases of high-end merchandise. After negotiating deals, Kingston would invite the sellers to one of his high-end Florida homes and promise to feature them and their products on social media.
Investigators said that when it came time to pay, Kingston or his mother would text the victims fake wire receipts for the luxury merchandise, which included a bulletproof Escalade, watches and a 19-foot (5.9-meter) LED TV, investigators said.
When the funds never cleared, victims often contacted Kingston and Turner repeatedly, but were either never paid or received money only after filing lawsuits or contacting law enforcement.
Kingston, who was born in Florida and raised in Jamaica, shot to fame at age 17 with the 2007 hit 'Beautiful Girls,' which laid his lyrics over Ben E. King's 1961 song 'Stand By Me.' His other hits include 2007's 'Take You There' and 2009's 'Fire Burning.'
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