Sean Kingston’s home in Florida was reportedly raided by local authorities yesterday (May 23), culminating in the arrest of the singer-rapper and his mother, businesswoman Janice Turner.
READ MORE: DIIV tackle their existential crisis: “This album just feels so hard fought”
TMZ first reported that deputies from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, along with SWAT team members, raided Kingston’s residence on Thursday morning in Southwest Ranches, Florida.
“Following an investigation that began in the city of Dania Beach, this morning, May 23, [authorities] served arrest and search warrants at a residence in Southwest Ranches,” public information officer Carey Codd said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
During the raid, Turner was arrested on “numerous fraud and theft charges”. It is also reported that Kingston was not home at the time of the police raid. BBC reports that Kingston was arrested hours after the raid in California.
On Instagram Stories, Kingston addressed the news, writing: “People love negative energy! I am good and so is my mother!.. My lawyers are handling everything as we speak ”
Most recently, Turner has been promoting her line of MAMA KINGSTON sauces alongside Kingston on his Instagram page.
TMZ does cite a lawsuit from February involving Kingston, where he had faced allegations of not paying an owed fee of US$150,000 for an entertainment system. They note that the lawyer who represented the company in the lawsuit, Dennis Card, was present during the raid.
BBC reports that court documents from the lawsuit state that Kingston contacted Ver Ver Entertainment, the plaintiff, over social media in September 2023 to purchase a “232-inch Colossal TV, coupled with a robust sound system”.
The company had claimed that Kingston “induced” the business to install the products with “as small a downpayment as possible” by making “numerous false representations”, including a suggestion to barter possible promotional videos for the company with Justin Bieber.
A lawyer representing Ver Ver Entertainment had informed Miami’s WPLG Local 10 news that the company had aimed to retrieve the entertainment system from the house following the raid.
“We know that our property is inside this house right here, so as soon as the raid takes place, we are going to have a crew of people in there to reassemble it and take it back to its rightful owner,” the lawyer is quoted as saying. It is unclear if representatives of Ver Ver Entertainment have been able to retrieve the entertainment system after yesterday’s events.
A lawyer representing Kingston and Turner acknowledged the allegations to the Associated Press, informing them: “We look forward to addressing these in court and are confident of a successful resolution.”
On the other hand, the department overseeing the investigation has noted it “is active and ongoing”.
The post Sean Kingston and mother arrested, Florida home raided in “ongoing” police investigation appeared first on NME.
