Sean Kingston Receives Prison Sentence For Million Dollar Fraud Scheme

Rapper Sean Kingston, who has Jamaican parentage, was slapped with a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence on Friday for his role in a $1 million fraud scheme in which he and his mother used his fame to trick sellers into handing over luxury items they never paid for.

Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were each convicted in March by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. Turner was sentenced to five years in prison last month.

Earlier this week, Sean Kingston’s lawyers had made an appeal to the judge for the Beautiful Girls singer to serve his prison sentence from home.

In new documents obtained by TMZ, he had appealed to the judge in his case to grant his request and also asked for a reduced sentence of less than three years instead of the five to six years outlined in the official guidelines.

In a bid to persuade the judge to consider his plea, Kingston noted that he has never served time and has been involved in numerous charitable works for his community.

Some of these charitable activities were detailed in the documents, along with several photos as evidence. However, the U.S. Judge David Leibowitz was not in a charitable mood.

Leibowitz handed down Kingston’s sentence and ordered him to be taken into custody immediately. Earlier, the singer had apologized to the judge in the South Florida courtroom and acted with contrition, saying he had learned from his actions.

Kingston’s attorney asked if he could self-surrender at a later date due to health issues, but the judge ordered him taken into custody immediately. Kingston, who was wearing a black suit and white shirt, removed his suit jacket and was handcuffed and led from the courtroom.

Kingston, 35, and his mother were arrested in May 2024 after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Turner was taken into custody during the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert, where he was performing.

According to court records, Kingston used social media from April 2023 to March 2024 to arrange purchases of high-end merchandise. After negotiating deals, Kingston would invite the sellers to one of his high-end Florida homes and promise to feature them and their products on social media.

Investigators said that when it came time to pay, Kingston or his mother would text the victims fake wire receipts for the luxury merchandise, which included a bulletproof Escalade, watches and a 19-foot (5.9-meter) LED TV, investigators said.

When the funds never cleared, victims often contacted Kingston and Turner repeatedly, but were either never paid or received money only after filing lawsuits or contacting law enforcement.

It’s a stunning fall from grace for Kingston, who was born in Florida and raised in Jamaica. The singer shot to fame at age 17 with the 2007 hit “Beautiful Girls,” which laid his lyrics over Ben E. King’s 1961 song “Stand By Me.”

The song’s digital release hit number one on Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs, debuting with 260,000 downloads in its first week (the second highest digital sales for a new song of 2007, only behind Rihanna’s “Umbrella”). The song held the pole position on the US Hot 100 Airplay and the Canadian Hot 100, and remained on top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. The song ended 2007 as the year’s 15th biggest-selling single in the UK.

Three years ago, the song’s music video hit 1 billion YouTube views on September 8, 2022.

Kingston’s other hits include 2007’s “Take You There” and 2009’s “Fire Burning.”