Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, were indicted by a grand jury after being accused of committing more than $1 million in fraud.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the “Beautiful Girls” rapper, 34, and his mother, 61, appeared in federal court Friday after a grand jury in Miami returned an indictment accusing the mother-son duo of falsely claiming they sent wire transfers for luxury items such as special vehicles and jewelry, among other things.
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud charges, the agency declaredarise from their alleged involvement in “a scheme to defraud sellers of luxury specialty vehicles, jewelry and other property purchased by the defendants through the use of fraudulent documents.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office further alleges that Kingston and Turner “unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed wire transfers or other monetary payments as payment for vehicles, jewelry, and other property purchased by Defendants, when in fact no wire transfers or other monetary payments had been executed by the purported banks, and thereafter Defendants retained or attempted to retain the vehicles, jewelry, and other property despite nonpayment. Through the execution of this scheme, Defendants obtained over $1 million in property.”
According to The Associated Pressciting the federal indictment, Kingston and Turner are accused of stealing nearly $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadillac Escalade dealership, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the custom bed manufacturer.
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 for each count.
The indictment comes more than two months after Kingston was arrested at a military base in California (where he was performing) and extradited to Florida following a SWAT raid on your home in Florida, where Turner was arrested.
The May 23 raid came more than two months after Ver Ver Entertainment sued the Jamaican-American singer in Broward County, alleging that Kingston entered into a contract in 2023 for the sale and installation of a colossal 232-inch TV, along with a massive sound system, at his Florida home.
According to court documents obtained by ET, Kingston allegedly exaggerated his relationship with Justin Bieber and, in an effort “to induce (See See Entertainment) to accept a much smaller down payment and credit toward the purchase price, (Kingston) promised (See See Entertainment) that he would produce promotional videos for (his) company featuring Mr. Bieber.”
The company claims that Kingston wired the company $30,000 to begin manufacturing the television and that after installation in December, he never completed payment of the remaining balance.
Ver Ver Entertainment claims that Kingston “never had any intention of paying (Ver Ver Entertainment) in full for its Colossal TV and sound system.”
At the time of her arrest in May, Kingston was serving two years of probation for trafficking in 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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