FORT LAUDERDALE: Sean Kingston, famous for his hit song “Beautiful Girls,” was sentenced to three and a half years in jail in connection with a US$1 million fraud scheme that also involved his mother, reports said.
According to CBS News, the Jamaican-American rapper and his mother, Janice Turner, were each convicted in March by a South Florida jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud.
Reports said the 35-year-old artiste, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, and Turner exploited his celebrity status to acquire luxury items, including a bulletproof Cadillac Escalade, a 232-inch LED television, watches, and other high-end goods, by sending sellers fake wire transfers instead of paying.
Kingston and Turner were arrested in May last year after a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in Southwest Ranches, Florida, where Turner was arrested.
Kingston was later arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert, where he had been performing.
The New York Times reported that a few months before the arrests, a company that sells high-end entertainment systems filed a suit against Kingston, accusing him of fraud and failing to pay for a 232-inch television and an advanced sound system installed in his home in September 2023.
The company claimed that Kingston had promised to use his music industry connections to arrange promotional videos featuring Justin Bieber in exchange for a reduced down payment.
However, the videos were never delivered.
According to the lawsuit, Kingston had paid only US$30,000 of the US$115,000 owed for the entertainment setup.
The case remains ongoing.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
