MIAMI – After being indicted by a grand jury, singer Sean Kingston and his mother made their first appearance in federal court in Miami on Friday to face wire fraud chargesfederal prosecutors said. If convicted, they face decades in prison.
Kingston, 34, of Jamaican descent and whose real name is Kisean Anderson, and his mother Janice Turner, 61, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud stemming from their involvement in a scheme to defraud sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods purchased using fraudulent documents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release.
Kingston and Turner are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud.
If convicted, they both face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Kingston and his mother “were unjustly enriched by falsely representing that they had made wire transfers or other money transfers as payment for purchased vehicles, jewelry and other property.”
When federal authorities checked the veracity of the money transfers, they discovered that “no wire transfers or other monetary payment transfers were made by the purported banks.”
In total, Kinston and his mother retained more than $1 million in assets that they did not fully pay for, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The case against Sean Kingston
In May, Kingston and his mother were charged with carrying out a organized scheme to defraudrobbery, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants issued by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Kingston was arrested on May 23 at Fort Irwin, a military training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing. waived his right to fight extradition and was returned to Florida.
Turner was also taken into custody the same day, when Police raid South Florida mansion his son was a tenant.
Arrest warrants in the case say that between October 2023 and March of this year, they stole nearly $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from an Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from a custom bed manufacturer. Details were not given.
At the time of his arrest, Kingston was on two years’ probation for trafficking in stolen property.
Turner pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 and served nearly a year and a half in prison, according to federal court records.
The Jamaican-American artist had a No. 1 hit with “Beautiful Girls” in 2007 and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie.”
Sean Kingston’s Lawyer Speaks Out
Bob Rosenblatt, the singer and his mother’s attorney, said in early June that his client has committed no crime.
“I don’t know who claims to owe money. You know, we knew about the watch thing, we know about the TV thing,” Rosenblatt said. “Whether there are other issues, I’m not sure. … This is a breach of contract. There’s no fraud here. There’s absolutely no organized fraud.”
Rosenblatt had intended to plead not guilty and request a jury trial. Kingston’s attorney said at the time that he was “very confident” the singer would get the charges dropped.
– THE The Associated Press contributed to this report.
CBS Miami Team
