Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother committed more than a million dollars in fraud in recent months, stealing money, jewellery, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, documents released on Friday allege.
Kingston, 34, and his mother, Janice Turner, 61, have been charged with conducting an organised scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
The two were arrested on Thursday after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Turner was arrested in the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing.
Kingston, who had a number one hit with Beautiful Girls in 2007 and performed with Justin Bieber on the song Eenie Meenie, is being held at a California jail awaiting his return to Florida.
Robert Rosenblatt, lawyer for the Jamaican-American performer and his mother, said on Friday that Kingston would return voluntarily if allowed, “which would save the state the expense of extradition and the costs of travel for the detectives and Sean”.
His mother was being held on Friday at the Broward County jail on a 160,000-dollar (£125,500) bond.
“We look forward to addressing these (charges) in court and are confident of a successful resolution for Sean and his mother,” Mr Rosenblatt said.
Specific details of Kingston’s and Turner’s alleged crimes are not included in the warrants, but the documents say that from October to March they stole almost 500,000 dollars (£392,420) in jewellery, more than 200,000 dollars (£156,968) from Bank of America, 160,000 dollars (£125,570) from the Escalade dealer, more than 100,000 dollars (£78,484) from First Republic Bank, 86,000 dollars (£67,496) from the maker of customised beds, and other smaller amounts.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already on two years’ probation for trafficking stolen property. Further information on that conviction could not be found.
According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than 160,000 dollars and served nearly a year and a half in prison.
The two have also been sued.
In 2015, a seller of customised watches successfully sued Kingston and his mother in a New York City federal court for 356,000 dollars (£279,403) after they failed to pay.
In 2018, a New York jeweller successfully sued the two for 301,000 dollars (£236,236) after they scammed the store out of nine items.
More recently, a Florida entertainment systems company sued Kingston in February, saying he failed to pay 120,000 dollars of a 150,000-dollar bill for a five-meter wide television it installed in his home.
He allegedly told the owners that if they gave him a low down payment and credit, he and Bieber would make commercials for them. That never happened, and Kingston never paid, the lawsuit says.
The company’s lawyer says Bieber had no involvement — Kingston was falsely using his name.