The rapper Sean Kingston was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Friday in connection with a $1 million fraud scheme in which he used his celebrity status to obtain high-end merchandise — including a bulletproof Cadillac Escalade — from sellers whom he did not pay.
The federal government said that Mr. Kingston, 35, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, conned his victims into furnishing him with a 232-inch LED television, watches and other luxury goods with promises to pay, but sent them phony wire transfers.
His mother, Janice Turner, took part in the scheme, according to investigators, who said that the two of them used Mr. Kingston’s fame and influence on social media to get their victims to forgo their due diligence.
In March, a South Florida jury convicted both of them of five criminal counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In July, Ms. Turner, 62, was sentenced to five years in prison. She is appealing her conviction.
At his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Mr. Kingston, who rose to fame with the 2007 hit single, “Beautiful Girls,” apologized for the scheme, which his lawyer had argued in a sentencing memorandum was a nonviolent offense that warranted a more lenient sentence.
The lawyer, Zeljka Bozanic, had suggested that Mr. Kingston should receive home confinement and described her client as “deeply remorseful.”
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The post The Rapper Sean Kingston Is Sentenced to 3½ Years in $1 Million Fraud Scheme appeared first on New York Times.
