Sean Kingston has received a sentence of three and a half years in federal prison due to his involvement in a fraud scheme worth millions of dollars.
The artist behind the “Beautiful Girls” hit, whose legal name is Kisean
Anderson, was convicted earlier this year in a wire fraud case involving over
$1 million (£738,000) worth of luxury goods, along with his mother, Janice
Turner. Through the scheme, items such as watches, furniture, a bulletproof
Cadillac Escalade, and a 232-inch LED television were acquired.
The rapper’s celebrity status was exploited by Kingston and his mother, as
claimed by prosecutors, to convince victims to relinquish high-value products.
It was claimed that when payment was necessary, they would offer fake wire
transfer receipts to make it seem as though money had been dispatched.
Kingston often reached out to victims through social media to indicate his interest in buying luxury products, as disclosed by federal prosecutors. He would invite them to his residences in South Florida, assuring them of exposure by featuring their products on his platforms or suggesting them to other “high-profile celebrities.” However, when the payment deadlines came, Kingston or his mother reportedly supplied fake receipts indicating that funds had been transferred.
Authorities testified that while some victims received partial restitution
through lawsuits or law enforcement intervention, many did not recover their
losses.
At trial, prosecutors presented text messages between Kingston and his mother discussing the fraudulent documentation, including one in which the rapper instructed her: “I told you to make [a] fake receipt.”
Defence counsel Zeljka Bozanic described Kingston as “a soft guy who grew up poor when he rose to fame overnight,” arguing that the artist retained “the mentality of a teenager” and lacked the skills to manage his finances or business dealings.
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