Singer Sean Kingston sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for US$1 million fraud scheme

Sean Kingston arrives at the 40th Anniversary American Music Awards in Los Angeles, on Nov. 18, 2012. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Singer Sean Kingston was sentenced to three and a half years in prison Friday after being convicted of a $1 million fraud scheme in which he leveraged his fame to dupe sellers into giving him luxury items that he then never paid for.

Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were 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.

Before U.S. Judge David Leibowitz handed down Kingston’s sentence, the singer apologized to the judge in the South Florida courtroom and said he had learned from his actions. His 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.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton described Kingston as someone addicted to his celebrity lifestyle even though he could no longer afford to maintain it.

“He clearly doesn’t like to pay and relies on his celebrity status to defraud his victims,” Anton said Friday.

The federal prosecutor described a yearslong pattern by Kingston of bullying victims for luxury merchandise and then refusing to pay.

“He is a thief and a conman, plain and simple,” Anton said.

Defence attorney Zeljka Bozanic countered that the 35-year-old Kingston had the mentality of a teenager -- the age he was when he vaulted to stardom. The attorney said Kingston had almost no knowledge of his finances, relying on business managers and his mother.

“No one showed him how to invest his money,” Bozanic said. “Money went in and money went out on superficial things.”

Bozanic said Kingston has already started paying back his victims and intends to pay back every cent once he is free and can start working again.

Leibowitz rejected the idea that Kingston was unintelligent or naive, but the judge said he gave Kingston credit for accepting responsibility and declining to testify rather than possibly lying in court. That was in contrast to Kingston’s mother, whose trial testimony Leibowitz described as obstruction.

Kingston 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 luxury 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 items, 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, authorities said.

Kingston, who was born in Florida and raised in Jamaica, 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.” His other hits include 2007’s “Take You There” and 2009’s “Fire Burning.”

By David Fischer.