Sean Kingston and his mother face federal fraud charges in court | Entertainment & Arts Update

July 20, 2024 TruthUSA

Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been indicted on federal charges of committing over $1m (£774m) worth of fraud.

The 34-year-old singer, known for his song Beautiful Girls, and his 61-year-old mother Janice Turner are accused of taking part in a scheme to defraud victims of luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other goods using fraudulent documents.

In May, a SWAT team in Florida raided the singer’s rented mansion in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale and arrested Turner for fraud and theft related to a large TV installation.

Kingston was later arrested on the same day at Fort Irwin, a US army base in California, where he was performing, and faced similar charges at the state level.

The mother and son appeared in a federal court in Miami for the first time on Friday.

According to the federal indictment, they falsely claimed to have made electronic bank transfers and other payments for high-end items when no such transactions occurred.

Authorities stated that they kept over $1m worth of fraudulently obtained items without actually paying for them.

From October 2023 to March this year, the pair allegedly defrauded nearly $500,000 in jewelry, over $200,000 from the Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadillac Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, and $86,000 from a custom bed manufacturer.

Robert Rosenblatt, the lawyer representing Kingston and his mother, did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

He previously mentioned that they were looking forward to addressing the charges and remain “confident of a successful resolution”.

Jamaican American artist Kingston rose to fame with his hit single Beautiful Girls in 2007 and later collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song Eenie Meenie.

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