Rapper and singer Sean Kingston is back in South Florida, where he and his mother are charged with committing more than a million dollars' worth of fraud.
Kingston, 34, was booked into the Broward County jail on Sunday, according to jail records. He was arrested May 23 at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing. Last week, he waived his right to fight extradition in a California court and agreed to be turned over to authorities in Florida.
Kingston's mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, was arrested the same day as her son, when a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Kingston and Turner have been charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office. The warrants allege they stole money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture.
The Jamaican American performer had a No.1 hit with Beautiful Girls in 2007 and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song Eenie Meenie.
Robert Rosenblatt, an attorney for Kingston and his mother, previously said they looked forward to addressing the charges in a Florida court and "are confident of a successful resolution.”
The warrants in the case say that from October to March they stole almost US$500,000 in jewellery, more than US$200,000 from Bank of America, US$160,000 from the Escalade dealer, more than US$100,000 from First Republic Bank and US$86,000 from the maker of customised beds. Specifics were not given.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking stolen property.
His mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing over US$160,000 and served nearly 1.5 years in prison, according to federal court records. – AP
