Rapper Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, have been found guilty of federal wire fraud.
The verdict — guilty on a total of five counts — was delivered Friday after three and a half hours of jury deliberation at the trial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that the mother-son duo allegedly defrauded several luxury goods businesses in recent years, including a jewelry business, a luxury bed company, a used exotic car dealership, and a luxury microLED TV company.
Now, Kingston has been ordered to remain under house arrest with electronic monitoring. He must also post a surety bond consisting of a home valued at $500,000 and an additional $200,000 in cash. Turner, on the other, was taken into federal custody over concerns that she’d be a flight risk. Both are set to be sentenced on July 11th and each count carries a maximum 20 year prison sentence.
Kingston and Turner were arrested hours apart in May 2024. According to the federal grand jury indictment, the two had a system in which Kingston would use his celebrity status and online following to convince retailers to deliver luxury goods items prior to payment. Turner would follow up with the retailers with details, and payment would ultimately be made via fraudulent wire transfers. The scheme supposedly came to an end in March 2024.
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The mother-son duo pleaded not guilty to all counts, but to no avail. According to media reports, the two were in tears when their verdicts were read. Shortly after, Kingston hugged his mother as she was taken into custody, then thanked the judge for being fair, and declined to make any comments to the press as he left the courthouse in a Lamborghini SUV.
Later on Friday evening, Kingston posted a photo of his mother on his Instagram story, with the caption, “My only queen forever. Love you!!!! I promise you this is not the end!” with heartbroken and teary-face emojis.
Kingston, now 35, rose to fame with ‘00s pop hits like “Beautiful Girls” and the Justin Bieber-featuring “Eenie Meenie.” More recently, he was featured on Chris Brown’s Grammy Award-winning 2023 album, 11:11.
