Jamaican American 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, following his May 23 arrest at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert. He had been performing there and later waived his right to fight extradition, agreeing to be transferred to Florida.
Kingston’s mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, was also arrested on the same day during a SWAT team raid on Kingston’s rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale.
During his bond hearing, Kingston attentively listened as the judge detailed the 10 criminal charges against him, including grand theft, fraud, criminal use of personal identification, and violating probation for trafficking stolen property. The allegations claim they stole money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade, and furniture.
A Broward judge set Kingston’s bond at $100,000. His lawyers argued that since a bond had already been set for the probation violation charge, Kingston should be eligible for release.
Attorney says Sean Kingston did not commit fraud
Bob Rosenblatt, an attorney for Kingston and his mom, says his client committed no crime. “Well, I don’t know who is claiming they owe money. You know, we were aware of the watches, we are aware of the TV issue.”
“If there are other issues I’m not sure about… It’s a breach of contract. There’s no fraud here. There’s no organized fraud at all.”
The warrants allege that from October to March, they stole nearly $500,000 in jewelry, over $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from the Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, and $86,000 from a custom bedmaker. Details were not specified.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking stolen property.
His mother previously pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2006 for stealing over $160,000, serving almost 1.5 years in prison according to federal court records.
Read: BSO raids Sean Kingston’s Florida house; singer’s mother arrested
