Florida’s Fort Lauderdale.Rapper Sean Kingston was found guilty of a $1 million fraud scheme in which he used his notoriety to trick retailers into giving him expensive goods that he never paid for, and he was sentenced to three and a half years in jail on Friday.
In March, a federal jury found Kingston, whose official name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, guilty of four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Last month, Turner received a five-year prison sentence.
Suggested Videos
Kingston apologized to U.S. Judge David Leibowitz in the South Florida courthouse before to receiving his sentence, stating that he had learnt from his conduct. Because of health concerns, his lawyer requested if he might self-surrender later, but the judge ordered him to be brought into jail right away. After taking off his suit jacket, Kingston—dressed in a black suit and white shirt—was handcuffed and escorted out of the courthouse.
In May 2024, Kingston, 35, and his mother were taken into custody following a SWAT team raid on Kingston’s rental home in the Fort Lauderdale suburbs. While Kingston was detained while performing at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert, Turner was arrested during the raid.
Court documents show that Kingston organized purchases of luxury goods via social media between April 2023 and March 2024. Following negotiations, Kingston would extend an invitation to one of his upscale Florida residences to the vendors, promising to promote them and their goods on social media.
When it came time to pay, investigators claimed that Kingston or his mother would SMS the victims fictitious wire receipts for the expensive goods, which included a 19-foot (5.9-meter) LED TV, watches, and a bulletproof Escalade.
Victims frequently called Kingston and Turner repeatedly when the payments failed to clear, but they were either never paid or only got money after contacting law enforcement or filing lawsuits.
Born in Florida and raised in Jamaica, Kingston rose to popularity at the age of 17 when he wrote the lyrics for the 2007 hit song Beautiful Girls, which was based on the 1961 song Stand By Me by Ben E. King. Take You There from 2007 and Fire Burning from 2009 are two of his other hits.
