Rapper Sean Kingston will spend the next three and a half years behind bars after being convicted in a $1 million fraud scheme.
Kingston and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud, The Associated Press reported. Those were federal charges. The pair also face state charges, WFOR reported.
Turner was sentenced to five years in prison last month.
The sentencing for her son, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, was rescheduled for Aug. 15.
In addition to being sentenced to prison time, Kingston was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, WFOR reported
They were arrested in May 2024 after a raid by members of a SWAT team at Kingston’s rented mansion near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the AP reported.
Turner was taken into custody after the raid, WFOR reported, while her son was taken into custody at Fort Irwin, California, where he was performing.
Court filings said Kingston used social media for nearly a year to buy high-end merchandise and after negotiating the deal, he would invite the sellers to one of his homes, promising that he would feature them and their items on social media, the AP reported.
When the bill needed to be paid, prosecutors said he or his mother would text fake wire receipts for the items.
Text messages from Kingston to his mother read, according to WFOR, “I told you to make [a] fake receipt,” with a second that read, “so it [looks] like the transfer will be there in a couple [of] days.”
When the wire transfers didn’t clear, the victims would contact either Kingston or Turner repeatedly, but would only get money after filing lawsuits or contacting the police.
Some of the items purchased as part of the scheme included a bulletproof Escalade, watches and a 19-foot LED TV, investigators said, according to the AP.
Kingston’s attorney portrayed his client as “a soft guy who grew up poor when he rose to fame overnight,” who had “no idea how to run a business [and] no idea how much money is in his bank account,” WFOR reported.