Sean Kingston and his mother arrested over alleged fraud
Jamaican-American singer, Sean Kingston and his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, were arrested in California on Thursday, hours after a SWAT team raided his home in Broward County.
Sean Kingston and his mother committed more than a million dollars in fraud in recent months, stealing money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, documents released Friday allege.
Kingston, 34, and his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, have been charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Specific details of Kingston’s and Turner’s alleged crimes are not included in the warrants, but the documents say that from October to March they stole almost $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from the Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, $86,000 from the maker of customized beds and other smaller amounts.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already on two years’ probation for trafficking stolen property. Further information on that conviction could not be found.
According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing over $160,000 and served nearly 1.5 years in prison.
The two have also been sued.
In 2015, a seller of customized watches successfully sued Kingston and his mother in a New York City federal court for $356,000 after they failed to pay.
In 2018, a New York jeweler successfully sued the two for $301,000 after they scammed the store out of nine items.
More recently, a Florida entertainment systems company sued Kingston in February, saying he failed to pay $120,000 of a $150,000 bill for a 232-inch (5.8 meter) television it installed in his home. The TV is approximately 17 feet by 9.5 feet (5 meters by 3 meters) and covers a wall.
He allegedly told the owners that if they gave him a low down payment and credit, he and Bieber would make commercials for them. That never happened, and Kingston never paid, the lawsuit says.
The company’s attorney says Bieber had no involvement — Kingston was falsely using his name.
Mr. Kingston was still in his teens when his debut single, “Beautiful Girls,” spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2007. He has since collaborated with Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj and Wyclef Jean, but he has kept a lower profile in recent years.
News link:https://apnews.com/article/sean-kingston-fraud-swat-raid-1d8836b8f5bbe5f90d3a8566a6ff6e80