Sean Kingston has been accused of defrauding as much as $ 1 million from several businesses including a jeweler and exotic car dealership.
Prosecutors claim Kingston, 34, and his mother Janice Turner, 61, committed more than a million dollars in fraud in recent months, stealing money, jewellery, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, documents released Friday allege.
The mother and son are charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
The two were arrested Thursday after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Turner was arrested in the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing.
According to the arrest warrant, they are charged with a total of 10 counts related to the raid.
The duo allegedly never paid for a Cadillac Escalade worth $159,701.49 and $ 480,000 worth of jewellery.
The rest of the charges are related to bank fraud and writing bad checks.
Kingston is also accused of grand theft over a custom bed worth $86,568.33, as reported by TMZ.
Kingston, who had a No. 1 hit with Beautiful Girls in 2007 and performed with Justin Bieber on the song Eenie Meenie, is being held at a California jail awaiting his return to Florida.
Robert Rosenblatt, the attorney for the Jamaican-American performer and his mother, said on Friday that Kingston would return voluntarily if allowed, ‘which would save the state the expense of extradition and the costs of travel for the detectives and Sean.’
Turner was released on a $160,000 bond.
Court documents say that from October to March the mother and son stole almost $500,000 in jewellery, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from the Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, $86,000 from the maker of customized beds and other smaller amounts.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already on two years probation for trafficking stolen property. Further information on that conviction could not be found.
According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing over $160,000 and served nearly 1.5 years in prison. The two have also been sued by various businesses.
In 2015, a seller of customized watches successfully sued Kingston and his mother in a New York City federal court for $356,000 after they failed to pay.
In 2018, a New York jeweller successfully sued the two for $301,000 after they scammed the store out of nine items.
More recently, a Florida entertainment systems company sued Kingston in February, saying he failed to pay $120,000 of a $150,000 bill for a 232-inch television it installed in his home. The TV is approximately 17 feet by 9.5 feet and covers a wall.
He allegedly told the owners that if they gave him a low down payment and credit, he and Bieber would make commercials for them. That never happened, and Kingston never paid, the lawsuit says.
The company’s attorney says Bieber had no involvement — Kingston was falsely using his name.
In the late 2000s, Kingston was one of the biggest names in hip-hop thanks to his collaborations with Justin Bieber, Dr. Dre and Nicki Minaj, not to mention his smash hit Beautiful Girls.
But his star has fallen somewhat since then as he’s been without a major label release for more than a decade. His 2022 album Road to Deliverance failed to chart.
The singer was born Kisean Paul Anderson in Miami in 1990. In his youth, he moved with his family to Jamaica before returning to Florida in his teenage years for high school.
He was seriously injured in 2011 when he was riding on a jet ski with a woman and it crashed into a bridge. He was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition where he spent 11 days in treatment.
During that stay, doctors discovered that Kingston had suffered a torn aorta, which required emergency surgery. He later said the procedure saved his life.
In the aftermath, Kingston was required to pay a $180 fine as he was accused of ‘carelessness’ while driving the jet ski.
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