Sean Kingston and his mother have pleaded not guilty to fraud.
The “Beautiful Girls” hitmaker and his mother Janice Turner have been accused of of falsely claiming they had sent bank transfers for luxury items worth more than $1 million, but on Aug. 26, they denied the charges of organized fraud and grand theft during an arraignment hearing in front of Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra.
According to the Sun Sentinel newspaper, bond had already been set at $90,000 in a previous hearing and the judge didn’t make any changes.
The rapper and his mother’s charges stem from their alleged involvement in “a scheme to defraud victim sellers of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods purchased by the defendants through the use of fraudulent documents,” the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, previously explained.
The pair “unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment transfers as payment for vehicles, jewelry and other goods purchased by the defendants, when in fact no such bank wire or other monetary payment transfers had been executed by the purported banks, and thereafter the defendants retained or attempted to retain the vehicles, jewelry and other goods despite non-payment. Through the execution of this scheme, the defendants obtained in excess of $1 million in property,” they stated.
The pair are accused of having stolen almost $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank, $160,000 from a Cadillac Escalade dealer and $86,000 from a maker of customized beds.
In May, Kingston was arrested at an army base in California — where he was performing — and extradited to Florida after his home in the state was raided, where his mother was also arrested.
At the time of his arrest, the musician was serving two years probation for trafficking stolen property.
His mother previously pleaded guilty to bank fraud for stealing $160,000 and served more than a year in prison.
The pair are due back in court in October, and are also facing related charges in federal court.
