Miami grand jury indicts singer Sean Kingston, mother in $1 million wire fraud scheme
MIAMI - After being indicted by a grand jury, singer Sean Kingston and his mother made their first appearance in a Miami federal court Friday to face wire fraud charges, federal prosecutors announced. If convicted, they could spend decades in prison.
The 34-year-old Jamaican-born Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, and his 61-year-old mother Janice Turner, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud charges stemming from their involvement in a scheme to defraud sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry, and other goods purchased through the use of fraudulent documents, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a press release.
Kingston and Turner each face one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud.
If convicted, both face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that Kingston and his mother "unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment transfers as payment for vehicles, jewelry, and other goods purchased."
When federal authorities checked the veracity of the money transfers, they found that "no such bank wire or other monetary payment transfers had been executed by the purported banks."
In total, Kinston and his mother kept over $1 million in assets that they didn't fully pay for, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The case against Sean Kingston
In May, Kingston and his mother were charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft, and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward Sheriff's Office.
Kingston was arrested May 23 at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California's Mojave Desert where he was performing. He waived his right to fight the extradition and was returned to Florida.
Turner was also taken into custody that same day, when police raided a South Florida mansion her son had been renting.
The warrants in the case said that from October 2023 to March of this year they stole almost $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 the maker of customized beds. Specifics were not given.
At the time of his arrest, Kingston was on two years' probation for trafficking stolen property.
Turner pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing over $160,000 and served nearly 1 1/2 years in prison, according to federal court records.
The Jamaican American performer 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, an attorney for the singer and his mom, said in early June that his client committed no crime.
"Well, I don't know who is claiming they owe money. You know, we were aware of the watches, we are aware of the TV issue," Rosenblatt said. "If there are other issues I'm not sure about... It's a breach of contract. There's no fraud here. There's no organized fraud at all."
Rosenblatt planned to file a not-guilty plea and ask for a jury trial. Kingston's attorney said at the time that he was "very confident" that the singer would get the charges against him dismissed.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.