Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, are accused of defrauding victims of expensive vehicles and jewelry, among other things.
Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, were indicted by a grand jury after being accused of committing more than $1 million worth of fraud.
According to the United States Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida, the "Beautiful Girls" rapper, 34, and his mother, 61, appeared Friday in federal court after a grand jury in Miami returned an indictment accusing the mother-son duo of falsely claiming they sent bank transfers for high-end items such as specialty vehicles and jewelry, among other things.
The conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud charges, the agency stated, stem from their alleged involvement in "a scheme to defraud victim sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry, and other goods purchased by the defendants through the use of fraudulent documents."
The U.S. Attorney's Office further states Kingston and Turner "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 by the defendants, when in fact no such bank wire or other monetary payment transfers had been executed by the purported banks, and thereafter the defendants retained or attempted to retain the vehicles, jewelry and other goods despite non-payment. Through the execution of this scheme, the defendants obtained in excess of $1 million in property."
According to The Associated Press, citing the federal indictment, Kingston and Turner are alleged to have stolen almost $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadillac Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the maker of customized beds.
Kingston -- whose real name is Kisean Paul Anderson -- and his mother were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years behind bars on each count.
The indictment comes more than two months after Kingston was arrested at an army base in California (where he was performing) and extradited to Florida following a SWAT raid of his home in Florida, where Turner was arrested.
That May 23 raid came more than two months after Ver Ver Entertainment sued the Jamaican-Amercian singer in Broward County, claiming Kingston entered into a contract in 2023 for the sale and installation of a colossal 232-inch TV, coupled with a robust sound system, at his Florida home.
According to court documents obtained by ET, Kingston is alleged to have hyped up his relationship with Justin Bieber and, in an effort "to induce [Ver Ver Entertainment] to accept a much lower down payment and credit towards the purchase price, [Kingston] promised [Ver Ver Entertainment] that he would produce promotional videos of [his] corporation with Mr. Bieber."
The company claims Kingston wired the company $30,000 to start making the television and that after the installation in December, he never completed the payment for the remaining balance.
Ver Ver Entertainment claims Kingston "never had any intention of paying [Ver Ver Entertainment] in full for its Colossal TV and sound system."
At the time of his arrest in May, Kingston was serving two years of probation for trafficking stolen property. Turner previously pleaded guilty to bank fraud for stealing $160,000. She served more than a year in prison, federal court records state.
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