Sean Kingston & His Mother Facing 20 Years Behind Bars In Connection To $1 Million Wire Fraud Scheme

Sean Kingston & His Mother Facing 20 Years Behind Bars In Connection To $1 Million Wire Fraud Scheme

“Beautiful Girls” singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been indicted on criminal charges.

Reports state that the 34-year-old and his mom were charged with 6 crimes related to an alleged $1 million wire fraud scheme and are facing up to 2 decades in prison if convicted.

As we previously covered, Sean Kingston, real name Kisean Anderson, and his mother Janice Turner, 61, were detained back in May amid a raid of the musician’s Florida home. The singer had been hit with a lawsuit from a former business partner who claimed he was scammed by the music artist, prompting a federal investigation into the matter. This past Friday (July 19th), the mother-son duo reportedly appeared in court for the case, which resulted in them both being charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud each.

Prosecutors allege that Sean Kingston and Janice Turner were involved in a scheme to steal from sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods purchased via fraudulent documents. Allegedly, the two would make payments through banks for the products that never actually went through, resulting in them stacking up an excess of $1 million. Warrants from their arrests reportedly state that from October to March, they stole nearly $500,000 in jewelry, over $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadillac Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the maker of customized beds.

Sean Kingston, Janice Turner

The United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida reportedly wrote that Kingston and Tuner:

“unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment transfers.” 

Should they be convicted on all charges, both face the maximum of up to 20 years behind bars. It’s noted in one report that Kingston was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking stolen property, while his mother has already served 1.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud charges in 2006 for stealing over $160,000, according to federal court records. Kingston has maintained his innocence throughout the case, and his lawyer has denied that he’s at risk of being thrown in the slammer, writing in a statement:

“Things were being paid back, he had certain obligations he had to meet. He met some of them in the past, and there was no particular deadline for him to meet the rest of the obligations. I see a civil contract that was breached, that wasn’t fulfilled, no criminal intent.”

It does not appear the musician has responded to the recent indictment publicly at this time.

[VIA]

Thoughts? Leave them for us in the comments below!