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Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, were found guilty on all counts Friday in a federal wire fraud case in Fort Lauderdale, Florida—a verdict that could result in both facing up to 20 years in prison per charge.
The pair—accused of running a years-long scheme that defrauded luxury retailers, jewelers, banks, and high-end service providers of over $1 million—were convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud after just three and a half hours of jury deliberation, according to NBC News.
Kingston, 34, whose real name is Kisean Paul Anderson, was in tears as the verdict was read, his hands clasped together.
“Protect my mother,” he reportedly cried out as U.S. Marshals took Turner into custody, according to WPLG.
Turner, 62, was described by the judge as the “fixer and nerve center” of the operation.
She was immediately remanded into federal custody following the verdict and will be held at Broward County Jail until her sentencing on July 11. Meanwhile, her son was granted house arrest with electronic monitoring.
Kingston must post a $200,000 cash bond and put up a relative’s $500,000 home as collateral.
A High-Stakes Con Built on Fame
The verdict marks the end of a saga that began with a civil lawsuit in early 2024 when Ver Ver Entertainment LLC sued Kingston over a $111,000 luxury TV and sound system he allegedly failed to pay for.
In exchange for a discounted rate, Kingston had promised to produce promotional videos featuring pop star Justin Bieber. However, the ads never materialized, and Bieber had no involvement in the deal.
Federal prosecutors stated that this bait-and-switch tactic was part of a larger scheme in which Kingston leveraged his celebrity status and social media influence to deceive businesses into handing over luxury goods without receiving payment. His mother played a key role in the operation, managing logistics, coordinating deliveries, and following up with sellers—all while forged wire transfers were sent as fraudulent proof of payment.
“This case is about a woman’s intuition,” argued Turner’s attorney, Humberto Dominguez, during closing arguments, claiming she was simply trying to protect her son.
However, prosecutors painted a very different picture.
Turner had previously served 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a 2006 bank fraud case involving more than $160,000, according to the New York Post. Her testimony on the stand—where she admitted to creating fake wire transfers to delay payments—was a key factor in the judge’s decision to detain her.
According to NME, a crucial piece of evidence included a text message Kingston sent his mother, reading: “I told you to make [a] fake receipt,” followed by, “so it [looks] like the transfer will be there in a couple [of] days.”
Luxury Cars, Jewelry, and Fake Promises
The elaborate scheme, which ran from October 2023 to March 2024, involved defrauding multiple victims out of high-end goods, including a bulletproof Cadillac Escalade, a 232-inch Colossal TV, luxury beds, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry. Authorities said fraudulent wire transfers were used to steal nearly $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, and over $160,000 from an Escalade dealer.
Jeweler Moshe Edery testified that he gave Kingston a $285,000 Audemars Piguet watch, believing he would receive future business and celebrity exposure. Kingston backed up his promises with a screenshot of a fake wire transfer. During the trial, prosecutors played a voice memo in which Kingston assured Edery, “I’m going to have you at all my video shoots and red carpets.”
Edery never received the money and was later fired from his job, claiming he was blacklisted from the industry.
“He simply never pays,” Edery’s lawyer told reporters, describing the scheme as “a script” Kingston repeatedly used to manipulate sellers.
Kingston and Turner had been sued multiple times in the past for similar fraudulent schemes.
In 2015, they paid $356,000 to settle a case involving unpaid customized watches. Then, in 2018, they were ordered to pay $301,000 to a New York jeweler after scamming the store out of nine pieces of jewelry.
A Fall from Stardom
Kingston, who was just 17 when his 2007 hit Beautiful Girls soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, became the first artist born in the 1990s to top the chart. The reggae-infused pop single spent four weeks at the top and became an international sensation, with its music video surpassing a billion views on YouTube by 2022.
Over the years, Kingston collaborated with major artists like Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Soulja Boy, Natasha Bedingfield, and Chris Brown. But behind the fame, authorities say, a pattern of deception was unfolding.
Kingston was arrested in May 2024 at Fort Irwin, California, where he had been performing for U.S. Army troops. That same day, a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in Southwest Ranches, Florida, arresting Turner on the spot.
Already on probation for trafficking stolen property, Kingston later agreed to return to Florida to face federal charges.
The pair now await sentencing on July 11. Each of the five charges they were convicted of carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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