Sean Kingston and mother both arrested on fraud charges in major bust

Sean Kingston was arrested in California on Thursday, hours after his mother was taken into custody in Florida.

An arrest warrant for the “Beautiful Girls” singer, 34, had been issued earlier in the day following a raid on a South Florida mansion Kingston was renting. He was out of the state for a performance in California at the time.

“This evening, police in Fort Irwin, Calif., arrested Kisean Anderson, aka Sean Kingston without incident on a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest warrant for numerous fraud and theft charges,” the Broward Sheriff’s Office confirms to PEOPLE in a statement. “According to investigators, he will be booked into jail in San Bernardino, Calif.”

Earlier today, Kingston’s mother Janice Turner, 61, was arrested at the home on her own numerous fraud and theft charges.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that the arrest and search warrants were served at a Southwest Ranches residence following an ongoing investigation, which is active and ongoing.

“People love negative energy! I am good and so is my mother!” Kingston had written on his Instagram Stories Thursday afternoon prior to his arrest. “My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”

The raid on the Florida home was triggered by a lawsuit between Ver Ver Entertainment and Kingston that was filed in February. The suit claims that the singer has not paid for purchased items from the company.

According to the complaint obtained by PEOPLE, Kingston presented “numerous false representations” to the company and claimed that he had a “current and ongoing working relationship” with singer Justin Bieber.

The two collaborated on the song “Eenie Meanie” in 2010 and “Won’t Stop” in 2011.

The suit also claims that Kingston promised to produce promotional videos with Bieber for the company to reduce his payments and credit toward the price of items he purchased from them. They found that the artist had “no ongoing working” relationship with Bieber.

The complaint alleges that Kingston breached his contract by failing to pay them as agreed after multiple attempts to collect payment in January. It also claims the singer “has a long history of engaging in fraudulent conduct.”

Ver Ver Entertainment claims that a judgment was entered against Kingston in 2015 after he obtained $356,000 in watches without paying for them.

Additional judgments were entered in 2016 and 2022 when he allegedly acquired $301,500 in jewellery and luxury watches worth over $1 million without payment.

“I filed a lawsuit against Sean Kingston,” attorney Dennis Card told PEOPLE. “A detective in Broward County read my lawsuit and contacted me, and so we went down and gave, with my client, a recorded statement and an affidavit.”

He added that they’ve been “waiting on this raid for more than two months now.”

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