Sean Kingston arrested: The singer and his mother Janice Turner stole more than $1 million through fraud, authorities say

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have committed more than $1 million worth of fraud in recent months, stealing money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, according to documents released Friday.

Kingston, 34, and his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, were charged with conducting an organized fraud and identity theft scheme and related offenses, according to arrest warrants from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

The two were arrested Thursday after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion in a Fort Lauderdale suburb. Turner was arrested in the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in the Mojave Desert where he was performing.

Kingston, who had a No. 1 hit with “Beautiful Girls” in 2007 and performed the song “Eenie Meenie” with Justin Bieber, is being held at the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto awaiting his return to Florida.

Robert Rosenblatt, the Jamaican-American artist and his mother’s lawyer, appeared in court with Turner on Friday morning. He said Kingston would return voluntarily if allowed, “which would save the state the cost of extradition and travel expenses for investigators and Sean.”

His mother was being held in Broward County Jail on $160,000 bail on Friday.

“We look forward to litigating these (charges) in court and are confident that there will be a successful resolution for Shawn and his mother,” Rosenblatt said.

Specific details of Kingston and Turner’s alleged crimes are not included in the arrest warrants, but the documents say that from October to March they stole nearly $500,000 worth of jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from the Escalade dealership, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, $86,000 from the custom bed manufacturer and other smaller amounts.

Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year suspended sentence for trafficking in stolen goods. No further information about this conviction could be found.

According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2006, stealing more than $160,000 and spent nearly a year and a half in prison.

Lawsuits were also filed against both of them.

In 2015, a seller of personalized watches successfully sued Kingston and his mother in federal court in New York City for $356,000 after they failed to pay the debt.

In 2018, a New York jeweler successfully sued the two for $301,000 after they defrauded the store of nine items.

Most recently, a Florida entertainment system company sued Kingston in February for failing to pay $120,000 of $150,000 for a 232-inch television the company installed in his home. The television is about 17 feet by 9 feet and covers one wall.

He allegedly told the owners that he and Bieber would shoot commercials for them if they gave him a small down payment and a loan. That never happened and Kingston never paid, the lawsuit says.

The company’s lawyer says Bieber had nothing to do with it – Kingston used his name incorrectly.

“He’s basically trying to scam people with a sales pitch,” said Dennis Card, the attorney for Ver Ver Entertainment who was on the scene of Thursday’s raid in Florida. “He’s getting them to give him really expensive things. We know our property is right here in this house.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.