FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rapper and singer Sean Kingston is back in South Florida, where he and his mother are charged with committing more than a million dollars' worth of fraud.
Kingston, 34, was booked into the Broward County jail on Sunday, according to jail records. He was arrested May 23 at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing. Last week, he waived his right to fight extradition in a California court and agreed to be turned over to authorities in Florida.
Kingston's mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, was arrested the same day as her son when a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Kingston and Turner have been charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft, and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office. The warrants allege they stole money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade, and furniture.
The Jamaican American performer had a No. 1 hit with “Beautiful Girls” in 2007 and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie."
Robert Rosenblatt, an attorney for Kingston and his mother, previously said they looked forward to addressing the charges in a Florida court and “are confident of a successful resolution.”
The warrants in the case say that from October to March, they stole almost $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from the Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, and $86,000 from the maker of customized beds. Specifics were not given.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking stolen property.
His mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing over $160,000 and served nearly 1.5 years in prison, according to federal court records.
Over the last two months, the ABC Action News I-Team has sent the names and information of nearly 300 people who were stuck in an "adjudication hold" to the Florida Department of Commerce. But now, some people have followed up to let the I-Team know after sharing their stories, they are finally getting the relief they desperately need.
