Rapper Sean Kingston was sentenced on Friday to 3½ years in prison after being convicted of a $1 million fraud scheme in south Florida. Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were both convicted by a federal jury in March of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud, the AP reports. US District Judge David Leibowitz sentenced Turner last month to five years in prison. The same judge sentenced Kingston, who was immediately taken into custody. His prison time is to be followed by three years of supervised release. Leibowitz also ordered that a restitution hearing be held within 90 days.
Kingston, 35, and his mother were arrested in May 2024 after a SWAT team raided Kingston's rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Turner was taken into custody during the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California's Mojave Desert where he was performing. According to court records, Kingston used social media from April 2023 to March 2024 to arrange purchases of high-end merchandise. After negotiating deals, Kingston would invite the sellers to one of his Florida homes and promise to feature them and their products on social media.
Investigators said that when it came time to pay, Kingston or his mother would text the victims fake wire receipts for the luxury merchandise, which included a bulletproof Escalade, watches, and a 19-foot LED TV, investigators said. When the funds didn't clear, victims often contacted Kingston and Turner repeatedly but were either never paid or received money only after filing lawsuits or contacting law enforcement. Kingston, who was born in Florida and raised in Jamaica, shot to fame at age 17 with the 2007 hit "Beautiful Girls," which laid his lyrics over Ben E. King's 1961 song "Stand By Me."
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