A SWAT team has raided the rented Florida mansion of singer Sean Kingston and arrested his mother on fraud and theft linked to the installation of a gigantic TV.
Detectives detained his mother, Janice Turner, 61, at the property in a Fort Lauderdale suburb, popular with celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill, on Thursday.
The sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing and declined to release specific details about the charges against Turner or whether her 34-year-old son is also being sought.
Local media reported Kingston was out of town and was not present during the raid, in which items were removed and loaded into a van by the authorities.
The Jamaican-American performer is best known for his 2007 single Beautiful Girls, Fire Burning and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on Eenie Meenie.
Federal court records show his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 (£126,088) and served nearly a year and a half in prison.
The sheriff’s office says the investigation is ongoing. Pic: AP
Kingston wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday, which was later removed: “People love negative energy!
“I am good, and so is my mother!… My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”
Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer representing the rapper and his mother, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel: “These are fine people, and I’d be surprised if the allegations were true.”
Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is on two-year probation for trafficking stolen property.
Items were removed from the property by the authorities. Pic: AP
‘Promise of commercials with Justin Bieber’
Lawyer Dennis Card, who was present at the arrest, said it is partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February, accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that installed a 232-inch television.
In the case, Ver Ver Entertainment says Kingston contacted the company in September about buying the television, sold under the brand name Colossal TV, and having it installed at his home. The system costs $150,000 (£118,000).
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Kingston allegedly told the owners that if they agreed to a lower down payment and gave him credit, he and Bieber would do commercials for them.
In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 (£23,631) and the TV was installed, according to the lawsuit, but no commercials or further payments were made.
Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey. Pic: Reuters
“He is 100% not involved in this,” Mr Card said of Bieber.
“He had the misfortune of doing some work in the past with Sean, and Sean drops his name like crazy.”
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, has not had a major label release in more than a decade.
In 2011, he suffered life-threatening injuries in a jet ski accident.