Christal Hayes
BBC News, Los Angeles
Rapper Sean Kingston has been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison in a million-dollar fraud scheme.
The “Beautiful Girls” singer was convicted earlier this year, along with his mother, in a wire fraud scheme where they stole luxury items including watches, a 232-inch LED TV, a bulletproof Cadillac Escalade and furniture, exceeding $1m (£738,000).
Prosecutors said Kingston – whose legal name is Kisean Anderson – and his mother used the rapper’s celebrity status to get victims to give them products and when payment was due would send them fake wire receipts.
The singer apologised to the court before being sentenced and said he’d learned from his actions, according to US media.
His mother, Janice Turner, was sentenced in July to five years in prison.
The Jamaican-American rapper, who is also known for hits like Fire Burning, Take You There and Eenie Meenie, which featured singer Justin Bieber, was arrested in 2024 in California, where he was set to perform at an Army training base in the Mojave Desert.
His arrest happened after authorities raided his home near Fort Lauderdale, where his mother was taken into custody.
Federal prosecutors said Kingston reached out to victims on social media, saying he wanted to purchase luxury goods and then invited them to his various homes in South Florida.
Kingston promised these victims to post their products on his social media and sometimes offered to refer their products to other “high profile celebrities”, federal prosecutors said.
But when payment was due for the products, he or his mother sent them fake wire receipts that falsely showed they’d sent over the money, prosecutors said at trial.
Authorities said most victims were never paid, though several did receive payment after law enforcement got involved or lawsuits were filed.
A key piece of evidence shown at trial were text messages between Kingston and his mother discussing the fake payment receipts, according to CBS, the BBC’s news partner.
“I told you to make [a] fake receipt,” he wrote in one.
Kingston’s attorney Zeljka Bozanic said the singer was “a soft guy who grew up poor when he rose to fame overnight”. He said Kingston still had the mentality of a teenager and didn’t know how to run his bank accounts or business.
He will begin serving his time immediately.
