RAPPER Sean Kingston has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after he was found guilty in a $1 million fraud case.
Kingston, 35, and his mom were convicted of ripping off car dealerships, jewelers, and a mattress company in a massive wire fraud scheme starting in April 2023.
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On Friday, Kingston, real name Kisean Paul Anderson, was sentenced to three years in prison in addition to three years of supervised release in southern Florida.
The judge turned down Kingston’s former request to be placed under house arrest rather than sent to jail.
He was immediately taken into custody.
The decision comes after his mom, 63-year-old Janice Eleanor Turner, was sentenced to five years in prison last month.
FRAUD SCHEME
In March, Kingston and Turner were each found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud, causing the rapper to break down in tears in court.
Both Kingston and Turner were arrested in May 2024 after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion.
Turner was taken into custody during the raid, but Kingston wasn’t home at the time.
He was later arrested while he was performing at an Army training base.
According to court documents, Kingston and Turner orchestrated a high-end scheme to get luxury items, including an SUV, expensive watches, and a massive TV, without ever paying for them.
Kingston arranged these huge purchases on his social media accounts from April 2023 to March 2024, prosecutors said.
Sean Kingston breaks down in tears as he & mom found guilty in $1m fraud case
When it came time to pay, Kingston or his mom would text the victims fake wire receipts as proof of purchase and keep their goods.
The luxury items included a bulletproof Escalade, a 19-foot LED TV, and a bed worth more than $86,000.
Investigators later confirmed the sellers were never paid.
During their trial, prosecutors showed a text message from Kingston to his mom saying, “I told you to make [a] fake receipt,” and then, “so it [looks] like the transfer will be there in a couple days.”
When the funds didn’t clear, victims would reach out to Kingston and Turner repeatedly, but never got their money.
Prosecutors said during the trial that the mom and son kept more than $1 million of goods they never paid for.
‘OVERNIGHT’ RISE TO FAME
Turner was described as the “fixer” and the “nerve center” of the plot, while Kingston was the muscle.
During the trial, Kingston’s attorney insisted he was “a soft guy who grew up poor when he rose to fame overnight.”
He went on to say Kingston had “no idea how to run a business, no idea how much money is in his bank account.”
Kingston, who was raised in Jamaica, quickly rose to fame at age 17 with his 2007 hit Beautiful Girls.
He collaborated with artists including Justin Bieber, Soulja Boy, Nicki Minaj, T-Pain, Akon, and Flo Rida.
His other hits include Fire Burning, Eenie Meenie, and Take You There.
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