Sean Kingston Sentenced to 42 Months in Prison, 36 Months of Supervised Release on Wire Fraud Charges

After being found guilty of fraud in March, Sean Kingston has been sentenced to 3.5 years behind bars as well as 36 months of supervised release thereafter.

The presiding judge handed down the sentence today, following a late-March guilty verdict and the July sentencing of Kingston’s mother. We’ve covered the cases in detail from the outset – though just to recap, the artist was accused of defrauding several luxury-goods businesses.

In short, that refers to leveraging his celebrity status to receive high-end products – watches and a car among them – at no upfront cost before failing to deliver promised payments. Additionally, Kingston and his mother are said to have fabricated wire transfer receipts and made other misrepresentations to boot.

All told, Kingston received the initially mentioned 42-month term for all five charges.

(Kingston’s mother was given five years in her own aforesaid sentencing.) And despite the arguments of his counsel, the “Beautiful Girls” artist was remanded into custody post-sentencing.

The 35-year-old Kingston is to “be evaluated for placement in” a drug and alcohol treatment program, per the judgement document, which also confirmed the initially highlighted three years of supervised release.

“I think the judge saw through the fact that this is not a typical fraud that you see in other cases,” Kingston attorney Zeljka Bozanic reacted. “And most of the restitution was paid back, most of the people were paid back. The fact that Sean has done so much stuff for other people in his life, and the fact that he is a good person and helps others, I think that also helped in the sentencing.”

On the restitution front, a related hearing will take place on October 16th, according to NBC News.

At least from a distance, full restitution hardly seems impossible here. As described by the indictment and authorities, Kingston participated in a scheme to obtain “more than $1 million in property” through the actions in question.

While nothing to scoff at, the sum should be considered from the perspective of the hefty valuations attached to the allegedly stolen items – and recent years’ steady inflation. Furthermore, whether the crimes warranted a massive SWAT raid as well as costly trials and expensive imprisonment terms is another debate altogether.

Not up for debate is the music world’s growing list of federal fraud indictments. Just in passing, that now includes charges against Michael Smith (accused of using AI to mastermind a multiyear streaming-manipulation scheme) and Hank Risan (who allegedly misled investors about his BlueBeat streaming service).