Source: Icon Sportswire/Getty
Sean Kingston is now facing a hefty prison sentence after he and his mother were federally indicted and charged with wire fraud totaling $1 million.
last Friday (July 19), singer and rapper Sean Kingston was indicted in federal court in Miami, Florida along with his mother Janice Turner on charges related to a $1 million fraud scheme. The charges listed are one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud to defraud victims of sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods purchased with false documents. If convicted, both face up to twenty years in prison.
In theirs statement, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said Kingston, aka Kisean Anderson, and Turner “unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed wire transfers or other money transfer payments.” Businesses targeted included a car dealership, from which Kingston and Turner allegedly stole a Cadillac Escalade, and a person who claims the two stole $480,000 in jewelry.
A lawyer for the man says Kingston's method was “basically a script, he says he's working with Justin Bieber and apparently he's doing a big show here, this is a rental house, he doesn't own it, and he's luring people in using his celebrity to he makes them release stuff without paying for it and he just never pays.” Kingston is best known for his 2007 single “Beautiful Girls,” which spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He has worked with Bieber, Wyclef Jean and Nicki Minaj before retiring from music.
The 34-year-old artist was arrested in Fort Irwin, California on May 24, the same day a SWAT team and other police officers raided Kingston's home in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Southwest Ranches. Turner, 61, was arrested during that raid. Both have had their problems with the law – Kingston has too accused for violating a suspended sentence related to a felony count of dealing in stolen property, which expires in October 2025. Turner served 16 months in prison after being convicted of making fraudulent loan applications in 2006.
