Rapper Sean Kingston was arrested in California on fraud and theft charges after a SWAT team raided his South Florida mansion and arrested his mother Thursday.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Thursday night that Kingston, 34, was arrested in Fort Irwin, California, on a Florida warrant for "numerous fraud and theft charges." He will be booked into jail in San Bernardino, California.
Kingston's mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, was taken into custody earlier in the day after deputies and Davie Police SWAT members were seen serving a search warrant at the massive mansion the singer rents on Southwest 178th Avenue.
Turner also faces numerous fraud and theft charges. She's being held in Broward's main jail on a $160,000 bond.
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Earlier in the day, Kingston's 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, was taken into custody during the raid of the rapper's mansion, which he rents in Southwest Ranches. Authorities were seen loading a can with goods. Turner also faces numerous fraud and theft charges. She's being held at the Broward jail Thursday night on $160,000 bond.
Aerial footage from Chopper 6 showed Turner in handcuffs and being placed in the back of a BSO cruiser.
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According to an attorney, the raid is connected to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February accusing Kingston of defrauding a Florida company that installed in his home a 232-inch television that he never paid for. Kingston was seen posing in front of the TV in a picture.
"He likes having bling, he likes showing off, he's a showman," attorney Dennis Card said. "My client has a $150,000 television sound system that's in there, there's also about $1 million worth of watches that are in there, there's a $80,000 custom bed that was ordered. This is an organized systematic fraud."
In the lawsuit, Ver Ver Entertainment alleges Kingston contacted the company in September about purchasing the television, sold under the brand name Colossal TV, and having it installed. Kingston allegedly told the company that if they would agree to a lower down payment and give him credit, he and Justin Bieber would do commercials for them.
In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 and the TV was installed, the lawsuit says. No commercials or further payments were ever made despite numerous promises, it contends.
Kingston, 34, had some major hits including his 2007 debut single "Beautiful Girls." He's previously collaborated with Bieber and Soulja Boy. According to the lawsuit, Kingston no longer has a working relationship with Bieber, who recently dropped his longtime manager.
"He's got basically a script, he says that he works with Justin Bieber, and that he obviously puts on a big show here, this is a rental house, he doesn't own it, and he lures people using his celebrity into having them release things without him paying for it and then he simply never pays," Card said.
During Thursday's raid, a line of luxury cars were seen parked outside the 7-bedroom, 15,000-square-foot mansion, which records showed had last sold for $2.25 million in 2021.
From 2015 to 2022, Kingston had numerous judgments filed against him for not paying for expensive watches and jewelry.
In one judgement, the singer allegedly didn’t pay for two luxury watches worth more than $1 million.
"He's 100 percent a scammer, he's on felony probation right now for trafficking in stolen property, he's got judgements against him for procuring more than $1 million in watches without paying for them," Card said. "This is just an ongoing pattern for Sean."
Card said the singer's mom is a part of Kingston's alleged actions.
"She’s complicit in it, she knows what’s going on," he said.
NBC6 was working to reach out to an attorney for Kingston.
Kingston, born Kisean Anderson, posted on Instagram earlier Thursday after news of the raid broke.
"People love negative energy! I am good and so is my mother!.. my lawyers are handling everything as we speak," the post read.
Turner has an Instagram page called "Mama Kingston Kitchen" where she sells her own brand of sauce and her celebrity son is also featured.
Federal court records showed Turner pled guilty in January 2006 to four counts of filing false loan applications and one count of bank fraud involving $132,000 in stolen funds she was ordered to repay. She was sentenced to sixteen months in prison followed by five years of supervised release.
Kingston suffered serious injuries in May 2011 when the personal watercraft he was riding struck the bridge connecting Palm Island with the MacArthur Causeway.
