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On Friday, rapper Sean Kingston and his mother Janice Turner were convicted guilty in federal court of more than $1 million in fraud.
Kingston, 35, and Turner, 62, were suspected of defrauding a jewelry firm, a luxury bed company, a used luxury and exotic automobile dealership, and a premium microLED TV company since October 2023, according to arrest warrants.
A jury has now convicted each of them on all five crimes, and each may face up to 20 years in jail.
According to TMZ, the Beautiful Girls hitmaker cried in court when the decision was revealed.
When Turner was led from the courthouse and remanded into jail, Kingston reportedly begged U.S. Marshals to ‘guard my mother.’
Kingston will stay in home detention until he and Turner are sentenced on July 11, while she is still in jail because the court considers her a flight risk.
During an arraignment hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra in August, Kingston and his mother both pled not guilty to the charges brought against them.
Kingston was arrested last May at Fort Irwin, an Army training camp in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing, on a warrant issued by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Meanwhile, Turner was apprehended the same day when a SWAT squad searched the singer’s leased home in Southwest Ranches.
Warrants claim they took money, $480,000 in jewels, a $160,000 Cadillac Escalade, and furnishings.
Kingston’s lawyer defended him, claiming that he was a ‘kid’ who could not comprehend his money, while the court labeled his mother as the ‘fixer’ and ‘nerve center’ of the criminal operation.
The Jamaican-American singer scored a number-one success with the song Beautiful Girls in 2007 and worked with Justin Bieber on the 2010 single Eenie Meenie.
Prior to his arrest, Kingston was already serving a two-year sentence for trafficking stolen items.
According to federal court documents, his mother pled guilty to bank fraud in 2006, taking more than $160,000 and serving over 1.5 years in jail.
Several companies have sued the two as well.
After Kingston and his mother refused to pay, a supplier of bespoke watches successfully sued them in a New York City federal court for $356,000 in 2015.
In 2018, a New York jeweler successfully sued the two for $301,000 after they defrauded the business of nine products.
More recently, in February, a Florida entertainment systems business sued Kingston, alleging that he failed to pay $120,000 of a $150,000 payment for a 232-inch television it put in his house. The TV is around 17 feet by 9.5 feet and covers a wall.
Kisean Paul Anderson, the singer, was born in Miami in 1990. He relocated to Jamaica with his family as a child before returning to Florida to attend high school.
Kingston rose to prominence in hip-hop in the late 2000s as a result of collaborations with Justin Bieber, Dr. Dre, and Nicki Minaj.
However, his fame has dipped since then, since he has not released a big label album in more over ten years. His 2022 album, Road to Deliverance, failed to chart.
Kingston made his music debut at the age of 17 in 2007 with the single ‘Beautiful Girls,’ which included his words over the instrumental tune ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E. King.
