Sean Kingston and his indictment for Conspiracy and Wire Fraud

Hey, so it's a Friday, and on Fridays I think what I'm going to start doing is just kind of like going over some of these cases that are in the news, um, just to look at it from the perspective of a criminal defense lawyer. Because I think, you know, sometimes when I'm seeing what's on television, it's not really accurate. It's not really giving you a full picture. So I just want to talk a little bit today about Sean Kingston. So, you know, this is the guy down in Florida. He's a rapper. He and his mom have both been indicted Let's just talk a little bit about like what's going on, what he's looking at. So this is a copy of the indictment, right? I mean, so this is what the government says it can prove against Mr. Kingston, you know, should this case go to trial. He's alleged in the indictment to have committed conspiracy to commit wire fraud. And then he's got a couple, actually several counts, 6 counts of actual wire fraud. And so conspiracy is pretty basic. Essentially, it just means that you and somebody else have entered into an agreement to do something illegal. The wire fraud counts, essentially, they're alleging that he's used wires to commit the crime. So, I mean, in today's day and age, like, you know, you can't not use wires, frankly. You use your cell phone, you use a fax machine, you use a telephone. I mean, that's enough to kind of trigger possible culpability under the wire fraud statute. So he's alleged of— I mean, here's kind of what they're saying happened, that he and his mom were talking to people online. They were agreeing to the purchase of certain items and services, mostly, mostly items. Frankly, I think in this indictment they're talking about two different either cars or trucks. Um, some AV equipment, and then 3 different watches. The government has alleged that all this amounts to about a little over $1 million worth of loss. So what they're saying is that, um, Shawn and his mother were talking to these people, um, by social media and other, um, you know, social media, essentially text messaging, and agreeing to purchase some of this stuff.. But then once they got receipt of the items, they just kind of ghosted them. They disappeared. And so they never actually paid for it. And the government is saying, you know, wait a minute, this has been going on for a while. So that's why, you know, they decided to sort of pick this up federally. Now, what's interesting and an important thing to know about the federal sentencing guidelines and how federal criminal, you know, criminal law works is that although they've alleged roughly $1 million of loss in the indictment itself, um, the government can also include what's called like relevant conduct. So if there's some other situations where they think that the Kingstons have done these sorts of things, they can also bring those totals into, um, an eventual sentence here. And so that's something to always kind of look out for when you're facing, uh, federal charges or when you're looking at these cases, this with some interest, is that just because it's in the indictment, that's not all there may be. All right, I mean, the government may be coming for some more, and so just know that. Um, so, so here's kind of what's going to happen now. I mean, so in figuring out exactly what his possible prison exposure is, I mean, you look at the statute, and for both the conspiracy and the wire fraud charges Those carry a maximum of 20 years in prison. Now, he's not going to get anything like that, given the charges contained in the indictment. Wire fraud kind of starts you off with what's called a base offense level of a 7. Okay. And this is how it sort of drives the sentencing because we're talking about, you know, roughly about $1 million worth of loss as contained in the indictment. That adds, I believe, like an additional 14 points. So, he's looking right now at what's called like a base offense level of a 21. If he has a criminal record, then a criminal history score can, you know, kind of increase what the sentence might, you know, the kind of sentence that he's looking at. Assuming he doesn't have any sentence or any criminal history at all, then a level 21 would mean that he's looking at roughly 37 to 46 months in prison. All right. So that's what this charge means for him right now. And again, that's sort of assuming there's no additional relevant conduct. So, I mean, I think one of the big issues here, right, is, I mean, what are some of the defenses to a case like this? I mean, you know, when you read the government's indictment, it always looks like it's like pretty straight ahead, but it's really not. I mean, the government's going to have to prove that it was either Mr. Kingston or his mother, who was the one making these overtures towards these people, the one who's communicating with. And that's not always easy to discern, right? I mean, other people have contact or have, you know, got contact with somebody else's cell phone, for example. So they're going to have to kind of prove that he was in fact sort of the person, you know, engaged in these communications. I think there's another kind of big issue here, which is the value of these items. And this is something that I don't think is litigated enough, frankly. Oftentimes when we're looking at some of these white-collar crimes, you know, there's a tendency to just kind of adopt what the government says the value of particular items are. And we don't know whether or not, you know, that's that seems to me to be kind of an unjustified reliance on the government, frankly. You know, these watches, for example, in the indictment, it looks like they're worth, you know, $285,000. Is that true? I mean, were these like genuine? You know, so value is something that's really important here because that's what's gonna be driving the sentence here. And so I think any kind of defense that he's looking at is going to need to involve challenging some of those assertions by the government. Um, you know, whether or not this ends up in like a plea or a trial, I mean, there are just some things that he needs to think about in, in challenging the government's case here. Um, you know, whenever you're reading an indictment, it always looks like it's like rock solid, but when you start digging into the government's case, I mean, very rarely is that true, and there are always, uh, defenses that can be raised on behalf of somebody. I was watching on television the other day where, you know, they're talking about Russia, right? And they're like, oh my gosh, you know, sham trials. I'm not disputing that. I mean, of course Russian criminal justice system is a sham experience. But what they pointed out was that, you know, in the Russian system they get 99% convictions. Well, the fact is In the United States federal criminal justice system, it's the same number. Roughly 98% of all federal cases are pleas. Defendants plead guilty to them. And they do that because, you know, in a case like this, the government's going to come and they're going to say, hey, look, you know, you're going to prison for 5 years, 3 to 5 years, unless, you know, you cop some plea where we'll give you probation. And if that happens, you know, it's hard not to take the deal even though you don't know what the value of these, uh, you know, these items were, um, or anything like that. You know, it's, it's a way of just kind of giving the government their win without really testing their case. Um, you know, I tend to think that more people need to be going to trial to challenge these sorts of things. But, you know, I'm a criminal defense attorney, so that's what we do. And I usually handle it on the appellate side. You know, once somebody's been convicted, that's typically when I, when I get involved. But I just wanted to talk a little bit about Sean Kingston's case. You know, it looks like he's looking at about 3 to 5 years. Looks like he's got some defenses, but he's going to have to work on getting his numbers straight. All right. And figuring out whether these numbers that the government is alleging at this point are really the accurate numbers. That's driving the sentence here, or the potential sentence if he's found guilty. So needs to put up a robust defense there. Um, so that's it, you know, that's kind of what I wanted to talk about today for anyone who's interested in exactly how the federal criminal justice system works. Um, it's kind of a crappy system, frankly, but, um, I don't know, if you have any questions, just, uh, drop them below and let me know, and I'll see what I can do to answer. Take care.