Rapper Sean Kingston arrested in California after SWAT raids his Florida home; accused of fraud

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rapper Sean Kingston was arrested Thursday in California on fraud charges, several hours after a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in South Florida and took away a van full of items.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said Kingston was arrested without incident on a Florida arrest warrant in the area of ​​Fort Irwin, a military base in the desert about 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the northeast from Los Angeles.

Earlier in the day, Broward detectives arrested his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, during a raid on the rapper's 13,000-square-foot home in Southwest Ranches, an affluent suburb of Fort Lauderdale is home to many celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill.

Broward County prosecutors referred all questions to the sheriff's office, which declined to release specific details about the charges, citing an ongoing investigation. After the raid, reporters outside the house could see authorities filling a van with cargo. The mansion was surrounded by expensive sports cars.

“People love negative energy! » Kingston had posted on Instagram earlier Thursday. “I’m fine, and so is my mother!” … My lawyers are handling everything as we speak. The post was later deleted.

Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer representing the rapper and his mother, said “we are aware of some of the allegations” made against the two.

“We look forward to addressing these issues in court and are confident of a successful resolution for Shawn and his mother,” Rosenblatt said in an email.

Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is currently on probation for two years for dealing in stolen property. No additional information about this conviction could be found. He will be detained in California pending extradition to Florida.

According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 and served nearly a year and a half in prison. She was being held at the Broward jail Thursday evening on $160,000 bail.

The Jamaican-American rapper is best known for his No. 1 single “Beautiful Girls” in 2007; another hit, “Take You There”; and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie”. In 2011, he suffered near-fatal injuries in a personal watercraft accident. Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, hasn't released on a major label in over a decade. .

A lawyer who witnessed his mother's arrest said the detentions were partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February, accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that had set up at him a 232-inch television (5.8 meters), or approximately 17 feet by 9.5. feet (5 meters by 3 meters).

“It’s amazing what you can do if you’re a celebrity,” attorney Dennis Card told the Associated Press. “He creates this larger-than-life character, 'I'm rich.' His mother is a necessary element in this regard. He presents himself as a family-oriented man: “I take care of my mother,” but she knows very well what is going on.

In the lawsuit, Ver Ver Entertainment says Kingston contacted the company in September about purchasing the television, sold under the Colossal TV brand, and installing it. The system costs $150,000.

Kingston allegedly told the owners that if they took a lower deposit and gave him credit, he and Bieber would do commercials for them.

In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 and the TV was installed, according to the lawsuit. No advertising or additional payments were ever made despite numerous promises, he claims.

According to the lawsuit, Kingston no longer has a working relationship with Bieber, who recently dropped his longtime manager. No current contact information for Bieber was available.

“He’s not 100 percent involved in this,” Card said of Bieber. “He's had the misfortune of working with Sean in the past, and Sean is dropping his name like crazy.”