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Singer Sean Kingston’s Mother Sentenced to 5 Years in $1 Million Fraud Case — Singer Awaits Sentencing on August 28
Janice Turner, the mother of singer Sean Kingston, has been sentenced to five years in prison and three years of probation for her role in a federal wire fraud scheme exceeding $1 million. The 63-year-old was convicted alongside her son, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. Kingston, 35, is scheduled to be sentenced on August 28.
Before her sentencing, Turner addressed the court, expressing remorse. “I’m sorry. My intention was to keep my son afloat in this difficult industry. They used him and abused him. I am begging for mercy for me and my son,” she said.
As part of her sentence, Turner must also pay restitution, although her attorney noted that many of the defrauded businesses had already recovered their losses.
Federal prosecutors said the fraud involved a 2024 scheme in which Turner and Kingston deceived luxury vendors, including jewelers and car dealers by falsely claiming to have made wire payments for high-end merchandise. Investigators later confirmed the payments never went through, but the duo still obtained more than $1 million in goods and assets.
The fraudulent transactions, which occurred between October 2023 and March 2024, included nearly $500,000 in jewelry, $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 in a luxury SUV, over $100,000 from First Republic Bank, and $86,000 from a custom bed company.
Turner and Kingston were arrested on May 23, 2024. The singer was apprehended at Fort Irwin, a U.S. Army base in California, while his mother was taken into custody during a police raid on a South Florida mansion he had been renting. Kingston waived extradition and was returned to Florida.
At the time of his arrest, Kingston was already serving a two-year probation sentence for trafficking stolen property. Turner had a prior conviction for bank fraud in 2006 and served about 18 months in prison for stealing over $160,000.