Rapper Sean Kingston arrested after SWAT team raids his Florida home; faces fraud charges

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Rapper Sean Kingston was arrested on fraud charges in California on Thursday, several hours after a SWAT team raided his rented South Florida mansion and took a van full of items.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said Kingston was arrested without incident on a Florida warrant near Fort Irwin, a military base in the desert about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Broward detectives had previously arrested the rapper’s 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, during the raid on his 13,000-square-foot home in Southwest Ranches, an affluent suburb of Fort Lauderdale that is home to many celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill.

Broward County prosecutors referred all questions to the sheriff’s office, which declined to provide specific details about the charges, citing an ongoing investigation. After the raid, reporters could see officers loading a delivery truck with goods outside the house. The property was surrounded by expensive sports cars.

“People love negative energy!” Kingston posted on Instagram on Thursday. “I’m fine and so is my mom! … My lawyers are taking care of everything right now.” The post was later deleted.

Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer representing the rapper and his mother, said: “We are aware of some of the allegations” made against the two.

“We look forward to litigating this matter and are confident that it will result in a successful resolution for Shawn and his mother,” Rosenblatt said in an email.

Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is currently serving a two-year suspended sentence for trafficking in stolen property. No further information about that conviction could be found. He is being held in California awaiting extradition to Florida.

According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2006 for stealing more than $160,000 and served nearly a year and a half in prison. She was being held Thursday night at the Broward Jail on $160,000 bail.

The Jamaican-American rapper is best known for his 2007 number one single “Beautiful Girls,” another hit, “Take You There,” and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie.” In 2011, he suffered near-fatal injuries in a personal watercraft accident. Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, has not released a major label release in over a decade.

A lawyer who witnessed his mother’s arrest said the detentions were partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February, accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that installed a 232-inch (5.8-meter) television in his home – about 5 by 3 meters.

“It’s amazing what you can get away with as a celebrity,” attorney Dennis Card told the Associated Press. “He creates this larger-than-life, ‘I’m rich’ persona. His mother is a necessary part of that. He presents himself as a family-oriented guy, ‘I take care of my mother,’ but she knows exactly what’s going on.”

In the lawsuit, Ver Ver Entertainment claims Kingston contacted the company in September to purchase and install the television, which is sold under the brand name Colossal TV. The system costs $150,000.

Kingston reportedly told the owners that he and Bieber would do commercials for them if they agreed to a lower down payment and gave him credit.

In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 and the television was installed, the lawsuit says. Despite numerous promises, no commercials or further payments were ever made, the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, Kingston no longer has a working relationship with Bieber, who recently fired his longtime manager. No current contact information for Bieber was available.

“He’s 100% not involved in this,” Card said of Bieber. “He’s had the misfortune of working with Sean in the past, and Sean drops his name like crazy.”