Sean Kingston has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a Florida court for his role in a $1 million wire fraud scheme.
The 35-year-old singer, born Kisean Anderson, was convicted in March alongside his mother, Janice Turner, after prosecutors said the pair obtained luxury items through falsified payments that never cleared. Turner was sentenced in July to five years in prison with three years’ probation.
The two were arrested in May 2024 following a Swat raid on Kingston’s South Florida mansion. Prosecutors told the court that between April 2023 and March 2024, the singer used social media to arrange purchases of high-value goods, inviting sellers to his home with the promise of featuring them and their merchandise on his accounts. Instead of paying, he or his mother sent sellers fake wire transfer receipts.
Among the items fraudulently obtained were a bulletproof Cadillac Escalade and an Audemars Piguet watch. During her trial, Turner admitted falsifying wire receipts, claiming she had done so to protect her son from scammers by delaying payments. The American singer declined to testify.
Evidence presented in court included messages Kingston sent to his mother instructing her to make fake receipts “so it [looks] like the transfer will be there in a couple [of] days”.
Kingston apologies
Before sentencing, Kingston apologised in court and said he had learnt from his actions. His lawyer had requested home confinement on the grounds that the offences were non-violent and that Kingston had repaid most of the victims.
Born in Miami and raised in Jamaica, the singer is best known for his 2007 hit Beautiful Girls, which topped the Billboard charts. He has released four albums and collaborated with artists including Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and Justin Bieber.
Turner has a previous conviction for bank fraud, having pleaded guilty in 2006 to stealing more than $160,000. She served 18 months in prison. Both she and Kingston have been sued on several occasions for failing to pay for luxury goods, most recently by a Florida entertainment systems company in February 2024.
