Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother were arrested on fraud and theft charges Thursday after a SWAT team raided his home in Southwest Ranches.
Kingston was arrested by police in Fort Irwin, California, on an arrest warrant issued by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, spokesperson Carey Codd said in a news release shortly before 9:30 p.m. The Sheriff’s Office said he will be booked in a jail in San Bernardino. The specific charges he faces were not available late Thursday.
Janice Turner, 61, was arrested on “numerous fraud and theft charges,” Codd said in a media release earlier Thursday. Turner is Kingston’s mother.
The raid at the sprawling white mansion in the 4600 block of Southwest 178th Avenue came out of an investigation that first began in Dania Beach, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
An attorney representing a company currently suing Kingston said the raid of Kingston’s home was related to his February lawsuit. Both Kingston and his mother have been named in previous lawsuits stemming from allegations of unpaid goods and services, court records show.
As of Thursday night, Turner was being held in the Broward Main Jail on eight charges: organized scheme to defraud over $50,000; three counts of criminal use of personal identification information; grand theft greater than $20,000 and less than $100,000; making an insufficient funds check greater than $150; and two counts of grand theft greater than $100,000, jail records show.
Dennis Card, an attorney for Ver Ver Entertainment, the company currently suing Kingston over breach of contract and fraud, had been standing outside of the home along with more than 30 SWAT team members Thursday afternoon, waiting to get inside. He said he saw Kingston’s mother in handcuffs.
“I’ve been waiting on this raid for a couple of months now,” Card told the South Florida Sun Sentinel as he waited.
Ver Ver Entertainment installed a 232-inch home theater and audio system in Kingston’s home in December, Card said. After making a down payment of $30,000, Kingston never paid the company for the full balance, the lawsuit claims. The system is worth about $150,000.
When Card emerged from the home on Thursday afternoon, he described it as a “full blown raid.” Deputies were “basically taking everything in the house,” he said, not just those pertaining to his lawsuit.
“People love negative energy!” Kingston wrote in an Instagram story Thursday afternoon. “I am good, and so is my mother! … My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”
The Miami-based attorney representing Kingston and his mother, Robert Rosenblatt, told the Sun Sentinel that he did not have much information about the allegations against his clients before their arrests were made public.
“These are fine people, and I’d be surprised if the allegations were true,” Rosenblatt said Thursday afternoon.
Card said Kingston convinced his client to sell to the singer by saying he was working with Justin Bieber and would include their products on social media to help drive business to them.
Kingston toured with Bieber in 2010 and collaborated him on the hit song “Eenie Meenie.” He is best known for his popular songs “Beautiful Girls” and “Fire Burning.”
Kingston also has a history of “fraudulent conduct,” according to Ver Ver Entertainment’s complaint. In 2015, a judgment was entered against him for obtaining over $300,000 worth of watches without paying for them. A similar judgment was entered a year later pertaining to his failure to pay for over $300,000 in jewelry. And in 2022, he was sued for allegedly failing to pay for two watches worth over $1 million together; the disposition of that case is unclear.
Card’s client and three workers went to the home to disassemble the home theater system and take it back Thursday, he said.
“They’re super happy they’re getting their stuff back,” Card said. “They were working their butts off trying to make it … it’s just a huge financial hit for them.”
Erick Passo, 36, sued Kingston and his mother over contract and indebtedness in 2010, court records show. He said the lawsuit had to do with a 2008 concert in Brazil that Kingston did not show up for, but he discontinued the lawsuit because he could not afford lawyers. He was 19 at the time.
“It was one of the worst times in my life,” Passo said.
Reacting to the news of the raid, he said, “sooner or later, the guys that do bad to other people, they’re gonna go down. It’s inevitable. I wish I was in the position I am today. I would’ve gone further with lawyers and whatnot.”
A Coral Gables attorney who had represented Kingston in that lawsuit was not in the office Thursday afternoon and did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Earlier this month, Kingston’s mother was sued for allegedly not paying several months rent on a beachside home in Fort Lauderdale, according to the attorney representing the property owners. The rent was $25,000 per month, which Turner stopped paying several months prior to the end of the year-long lease, according to the complaint.
Jeffrey Harrington, the attorney representing the property owners, said that they were in the process of filing the complaint and may have to try to serve Turner while she is incarcerated.
In 2017, Turner was sued over the failure to pay $70,000 in costs for jewelry purchased from New York. Sean Kingston’s name was written on the top of the purchase order. The attorney for the jewelers did not immediately return voicemails or emails Thursday.
By late Thursday afternoon, authorities, Card and his clients had entered the mansion, and the surroundings had quieted. Two U-Haul trucks had been parked in the driveway, presumably to carry items confiscated from within, Card said, as well as a Broward Sheriff’s RV with its lights flashing. One of the U-Hauls left about an hour later.
A tow truck arrived in the late afternoon and took a black SUV from the driveway. Deputies appeared to search a garage; one reemerged with a box. Another appeared to enter a black Bentley parked in the driveway.
Along the road outside the mansion’s gates, drivers slowed down to observe the spectacle. Some asked reporters what was going on; others took out their phones to record. One person played “Beautiful Girls” on their car speakers.
___
© 2024 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
