Singer Sean Kingston Sentenced To 3.5 Years For Wire Fraud

Rapper and Singer Sean Kingston was sentenced on Friday to three and a half years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme in which he used his celebrity status to obtain luxury goods worth $1 million without paying for them.

In March, a jury convicted Kingston and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and multiple counts of wire fraud. Turner received a five-year prison term last month.

During his sentencing hearing in South Florida, Kingston apologized to U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz, saying he had learned from his mistakes. His lawyer asked that Kingston be allowed to surrender at a later date due to health concerns, but the judge denied the request and ordered him into custody immediately. Dressed in a black suit and white shirt, Kingston removed his jacket before being handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom.

Prosecutor Marc Anton described the 34-year-old artist as someone who was addicted to the lifestyle that comes with fame even though he could no longer afford to maintain it. “He clearly doesn’t like to pay and relies on his celebrity status to defraud his victims,” Anton told the court. He added that Kingston had a long-standing pattern of intimidating sellers into handing over high-end merchandise and then refusing to settle his debts.

“He is a thief and a conman, plain and simple,” Anton said.

Kingston, who was born in Florida and raised in Jamaica, shot to fame at age 17 with the 2007 hit “Beautiful Girls,” which laid his lyrics over Ben E. King’s 1961 song “Stand By Me.” His other hits include 2007’s “Take You There” and 2009’s “Fire Burning.”