Sean Kingston has been arrested on theft and fraud charges, just hours after his mother was also arrested.
As per Rolling Stone, Kingston’s mother, Janice Turner, was arrested during a raid in South Florida, and then the singer himself was apprehended in California.
Kingston, known for his hit song “Beautiful Girls”, was taken into custody in Fort Irwin and booked into jail in San Bernardino County. According to a statement from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Kingston is facing multiple counts of fraud and theft.
Kingston was reportedly in California for performances when he was arrested. “This evening, police in Fort Irwin, Calif., arrested Kisean Anderson, aka Sean Kingston, without incident on a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest warrant for numerous fraud and theft charges,” the Broward Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Bob Rosenblatt, an attorney representing Kingston, told NBC News that the singer would waive extradition and return to Florida. “We were in the process of having him return to Florida after his show,” Rosenblatt said. “We want him back asap so we can show this is merely a civil case and not criminal. We look forward to challenging this case in court.”
The raid that led to Turner’s arrest was conducted by Broward Sheriff deputies and Davie Police SWAT. According to Dennis Card, an attorney representing Ver Ver Entertainment, the raid was connected to a lawsuit alleging that Kingston never paid for luxury items, including a 232-inch TV and a premium sound system.
Card told NBC Miami, “[Kingston] likes having bling, he likes showing off, he’s a showman. My client has a $150,000 television sound system that’s in there, there’s also about $1 million worth of watches that are in there, there’s a $80,000 custom bed that was ordered. This is an organized systematic fraud.”
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Card added that Kingston has a history of using his celebrity status to procure items without paying for them. ” [Kingston’s] got basically a script, he says that he works with Justin Bieber, and that he obviously puts on a big show here, this is a rental house, he doesn’t own it, and he lures people using his celebrity into having them release things without him paying for it and then he simply never pays.”
Kingston and Bieber have worked together, recording the song “Eenie Meenie” in 2010. Card also mentioned that Kingston has judgements against him for procuring more than $1 million in watches without paying for them, alluding to previous lawsuits against Kingston, including a $1 million unpaid jewellery bill.
Turner has legal issues dating back to at least 2006, when she pled guilty to four counts of filing false loan applications and one count of bank fraud involving $132,000 in stolen funds. She was sentenced to 16 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Turner is also currently embroiled in a civil lawsuit seeking $100,000 in unpaid rent for a different Florida home.
Following his mother’s arrest but prior to his own, Kingston posted on his Instagram Stories, “People love negative energy! I am good and so is my mother! My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”
