Rapper Sean Kingston and his mother charged with $1 million fraud

MIAMI– Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been charged in South Florida with fraud worth over a million dollars.

Kingston, 34, and his mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, made their first appearance in federal court on Friday, according to court records. A Miami grand jury indicted Kingston and his mother earlier this month, accusing them of participating in a scheme to defraud victims of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods through the use of forged documents.

Kingston was booked into the Broward County Jail last month on similar charges after being arrested May 23 at Fort Irwin, an Army 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 his rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

According to the indictment, Kingston and Turner falsely claimed they had made wire transfers or other money transfers for high-value items when no such transfers had occurred. Investigators said Kingston and Turner then kept more than $1 million worth of fraudulently obtained items even though they had not paid for them.

The arrest warrants for the indictment say they stole nearly $500,000 worth of 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 a specialty bed manufacturer between October and March.

The Jamaican-American artist had a number one hit with “Beautiful Girls” in 2007 and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie”.

Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer for Kingston and his mother, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. He had previously said they looked forward to hearing the charges and were “confident that there will be a successful resolution.”

Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year suspended sentence for receiving stolen goods.

His mother pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2006, stealing more than $160,000 and serving nearly a year and a half in prison, according to federal court documents.