MIAMI — Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been indicted in South Florida on federal charges of committing fraud worth more than $1 million.
Kingston, 34, and her mother, Janice Turner, 61, made their first appearance in federal court Friday, according to court documents. A Miami grand jury returned an indictment earlier this month accusing Kingston and her mother of participating in a scam to defraud victims of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other property using false documents.
Kingston was booked into Broward County Jail on similar charges last month after his May 23 arrest at Fort Irwin, a military training base in California’s Mojave Desert, where he was performing. Turner was arrested the same day as her son, when a SWAT team raided her rented home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
According to the federal indictment, Kingston and Turner falsely claimed to have made wire transfers or other monetary transfers for high-end items when no such transfers had occurred. Investigators said Kingston and Turner then kept more than $1 million worth of fraudulently purchased items without paying for them.
State arrest warrants indicate that between October and March, they stole 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.
The Jamaican-American artist had a No. 1 hit with “Beautiful Girls” in 2007 and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie.”
Robert Rosenblatt, an attorney for Kingston and his mother, did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking comment. He had previously said they looked forward to addressing the charges and were “confident of a successful resolution.”
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking in stolen property.
Her mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 and spent nearly a year and a half in prison, according to federal court records.
