The mother and son made their first appearance in court tied to the charges on Friday
Sean Kingston and his mother Janice Turner have been indicted for federal charges of committing more than $1 million in wire fraud.
Turner and Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, appeared in court for the first time on Friday, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Florida. The mother and son were both charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud. The two allegedly took part 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.”
Anderson and Turner, according to the indictment filed on July 11, “enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment” on those hefty purchases but never sent the money. In doing so they stole about $1 million worth of property, per the indictment.
If convicted, both Kingston and his mother will face up to 20 years in prison for each of the six charged counts.
Anderson first broke through with his platinum hit “Beautiful Girls” followed by “Take You There,” which peaked at Number Seven on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
An attorney for Anderson and Turner did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Anderson and Turner were first arrested on the fraud charges in late May. Turner was arrested in Florida, while Anderson was arrested in California hours later after performing at a concert. Anderson was booked in a Florida jail, held on $100,000 bond.
This isn’t the first time Anderson or Turner have faced allegations of failing to pay bills. Kingston has been sued several times on similar claims, while Turner pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in 2006, spending time in prison. After the two were arrested, a lawyer for the Florida company Ver Ver entertainment told a local NBC affiliate that Anderson “lures people using his celebrity into having them release things without him paying for it and then he simply never pays.”
