FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — On Friday, August 15, 2025, rapper Sean Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, was sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison for orchestrating a $1 million wire fraud scheme alongside his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner. The sentencing, held in a South Florida courtroom, follows their March conviction on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud, as reported by USA Today. Turner, sentenced last month to five years, faced additional scrutiny for obstructive testimony during the trial.
Kingston, 35, known for his 2007 hit “Beautiful Girls,” leveraged his celebrity status to dupe vendors into providing high-end items, including a $140,000 bulletproof Cadillac Escalade, a $19,000 luxury watch, and a 232-inch LED TV. According to prosecutors, from April 2023 to March 2024, Kingston and Turner used fake wire transfer receipts to falsely claim payments, retaining over $1 million in goods. A damning text from Kingston to his mother, “I told you to make [a] fake receipt,” became a key piece of evidence, as noted by CBS News.
The scheme unraveled after a SWAT raid on Kingston’s rented mansion in Southwest Ranches, Florida, in May 2024, where Turner was arrested. Kingston was later detained at Fort Irwin, California, during a performance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton described Kingston as a “conman” addicted to a lavish lifestyle he could no longer afford, bullying vendors for goods he never paid for. Defense attorney Zeljka Bozanic countered that Kingston, who rose to fame as a teenager, lacked financial acumen and relied heavily on his mother and managers. “No one showed him how to invest his money,” she told the court, noting he had begun repaying some victims.
U.S. Judge David Leibowitz, rejecting defense pleas for house arrest, ordered immediate custody and three years of supervised release post-sentence. Kingston apologized in court, but the judge dismissed claims of naivety, crediting him only for not testifying falsely. With restitution hearings set for October and separate state fraud charges pending, Kingston’s legal battles are far from over, casting a shadow over his once-bright music career.
Source: USA Today
