Sean Kingston and his mother are facing several years in prison.
The 34-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, and mom Janice Turner have both been indicted on federal fraud charges after being arrested on numerous charges back in May.
They appeared in a federal court on Friday (July 19) in Miami in front of a grand jury, after being accused of committing over a million dollars worth of fraud.
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Sean and Janice were indicted based on their involvement in “a scheme to defraud victim sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry, and other goods purchased by the defendants through the use of fraudulent documents,” according to the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida.
The allegations in the indictment state the mother-son duo “unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment transfers as payment for vehicles, jewelry, and other goods purchased by the defendants, when in fact no such bank wire or other monetary payment transfers had been executed by the purported banks, and thereafter the defendants retained or attempted to retain the vehicles, jewelry and other goods despite non-payment. Through the execution of this scheme, the defendants obtained in excess of $1 million in property.”
The Associated Press reports Sean and Janice “stole almost $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadillac Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the maker of customized beds.”
They have both been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud. Should they be convicted, Sean and his mother each face up to 20 years in prison on each count.