Rapper Sean Kingston arrested in California after SWAT raids his Florida home; charged with fraud

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Rapper Sean Kingston was arrested in California on fraud charges Thursday, several hours after a SWAT team raided his rented South Florida mansion and carted away a van load of items.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said Kingston was arrested without incident on a Florida warrant in the area of Fort Irwin, an Army base in the desert about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles.

Earlier in the day, Broward detectives arrested his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, during the raid of the rapper's 14,000-square foot (1,300-square meter) home in Southwest Ranches, a well-off Fort Lauderdale suburb that is home to many celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill.

Broward County prosecutors referred all questions to the sheriff’s office, which has has declined to release specific details about charges, citing an ongoing investigation. After the raid, reporters outside the home could see authorities filling a loading van with goods. The mansion was surrounded by expensive sports cars.

“People love negative energy!” Kingston had posted on Instagram earlier Thursday. “I am good, and so is my mother! … My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.” The post was later taken down.

Robert Rosenblatt, an attorney representing the rapper and his mother, said, “we are aware of some of the allegations” being made against the two.

“We look forward to addressing these in court and are confident of a successful resolution for Shawn and his mother,” Rosenblatt said in an email.

Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is currently on two years' probation for trafficking stolen property. Further information on that conviction could not be found. He will be held in California pending extradition to Florida.

According to federal court records, his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing over $160,000 and served nearly 1.5 years in prison. She was being held at the Broward jail Thursday night on $160,000 bond.

The Jamaican-American rapper is best known for his 2007 No. 1 single “Beautiful Girls”; another hit, “Take You There”; and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie." In 2011 he suffered near-fatal injuries in a personal watercraft accident. Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, hasn’t had a major label release in more than a decade.

An attorney who witnessed his mother's arrest said the detentions are partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that installed in his home a 232-inch (5.8 meter) television — or approximately 17 feet by 9.5 feet (5 meters by 3 meters).

“It is amazing what you can get away with if you are a celebrity,” attorney Dennis Card told The Associated Press. “He creates this larger than life, ‘I am rich’ persona. His mother is a necessary component in this. He presents himself as a family-oriented guy, ‘I’m taking care of my mom,' but she knows full well what is going on.”

In the lawsuit, Ver Ver Entertainment says Kingston contacted the company in September about purchasing the television, sold under the brand name Colossal TV, and having it installed. The system costs $150,000.

Kingston allegedly told the owners that if they would agree to a lower down payment and give him credit, he and Bieber would do commercials for them.

In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 and the TV was installed, the lawsuit says. No commercials or further payments were ever made despite numerous promises, it contends.

According to the lawsuit, Kingston no longer has a working relationship with Bieber, who recently dropped his longtime manager. No current contact information for Bieber was available.

“He is 100% not involved in this,” Card said of Bieber. “He had the misfortune of doing some work in the past with Sean, and Sean drops his name like crazy.”

Attorney Dennis Card walks out of Sean Kingston's home in the suburb of Southwest Ranches, Fla., Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home is shown during a raid by the Broward Sheriff's Office on Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home is shown during a raid by the Broward Sheriff's Office on Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Workers attempt to gain access to a Bentley SUV in the driveway at Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home on Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

A woman leaves Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home Thursday, May 23, 2024. Attorney Dennis Card said she was one of the owners of an $80,000 bed and had flown in from Utah to retrieve it. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

A U-Haul is seen leaving Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Attorney Dennis Card speaks to the media in front of Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home on Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Broward Sheriff's Office personnel move items in the garage at Sean Kingston's Southwest Ranches, Fla., home, Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

A woman leaves Sean Kingston's home in Southwest Ranches, Fla., Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

FILE - Sean Kingston arrives at the 40th Anniversary American Music Awards on Sunday Nov. 18, 2012, in Los Angeles. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented South Florida mansion on Thursday, May 23, 2024, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home in a well-off Fort Lauderdale, Fla., suburb. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

A man walks past a Ferrari in the driveway at Sean Kingston's home in the suburb of Southwest Ranches, Fla., Thursday, May 23, 2024. A SWAT team raided rapper Kingston's rented mansion on Thursday, and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stems partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home. Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the home. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting toward more records in quiet trading Monday ahead of what could be a quiet, holiday-shortened week.

The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading and on track to close above its all-time high set on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 12 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11:35 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was adding 0.1% to its own record.

Autodesk jumped 4.5% for one of the market's biggest gains after after an investment firm said it will try to delay the software company’s annual meeting so that it can nominate new directors for the board. Starboard Value also outlined how it says Autodesk hasn’t performed as well financially as it should have. In response, Autodesk said it will review Starboard's suggestions but added that it has “a clear strategy that is working.”

Chip company Broadcom rose 3.4% to add to gains from last week after it reported better profit than expected and said it would undergo a 10-for-one stock split to make its price more affordable. It followed Nvidia, the company that’s become the poster child of Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology and just executed a similar split.

Broadcom was one of the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 upward, along with a 1.8% rise for Apple and 4.5% jump for Tesla.

They were helping to offset weakness caused by rising Treasury yields in the bond market. The climb in yields erased some of the slack created last week when better-than-expected reports on inflation raised hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year.

This upcoming week has few top-tier economic reports for the United States, outside of Tuesday’s update on how much customers are spending at U.S. retailers and Friday’s preliminary look at the state of U.S. business activity. Markets will also be closed Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.

A report on Monday said manufacturing in New York state is still contracting, though not by as much as economists expected. Manufacturing has been one of the areas hardest hit by the Federal Reserve’s zeal to keep its main interest rate at the highest level in more than two decades.

The Fed is trying to hold rates high for long enough to slow the economy and snuff out high inflation, but it wants to cut rates and reverse the momentum before the slowdown can evolve into a painful recession.

High interest rates hurt all kinds of investments, and they tend to hit some areas particularly hard. Real-estate stocks, for example, can struggle when high rates make conditions tougher for the industry and draw income-seeking investors away from them and toward bonds.

Real-estate investment trusts in the S&P 500 fell 0.9% for the worst loss among the 11 sectors that make up the index. Close behind was a 0.7% drop for utilities, whose relatively big dividends likewise tend to see less interest from buyers when bonds are paying more in interest.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.29% from 4.22% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose by less. It climbed to 4.75% from 4.71%.

In stock markets abroad, European indexes calmed somewhat following last week’s rout. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.9% after tumbling last week to its worst week in two years on worries that potential losses by the president’s centrist party could lead to sharply higher debt for the country.

The modest gains for Europe followed losses in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.8%.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

FILE - Trader William Lovesick, right works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, June 12, 2024. Shares have opened mixed in Europe on Monday, June 17, 2024, as markets recovered from shocks of recent elections across the region. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - Specialist James Denaro works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on June 12, 2024. Global shares were mixed on Friday, June 14, 2024, after Wall Street touched fresh records, with benchmarks pushed higher by the frenzy over artificial intelligence technology. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Currency traders watch monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader watches monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)