R Kelly was ordered to surrender nearly $28,000 in his prison inmate account to be applied toward $140,000 in unpaid criminal fines as well as possible restitution to his sexual-abuse victims, reports Bloomberg.
US District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday rejected Kelly’s argument that the money had been “impermissibly confiscated” from him by federal prosecutors and prison officials. She imposed the fines on Kelly in June when she sentenced the R&B singer to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sexual exploitation of minors.
Kelly, who is in federal custody in Chicago, had demanded the return of the money, which can be used to buy snacks and toiletries from the prison commissary. But Donnelly said his arguments had “no merit.”
Seizure of funds in his prison account “is an appropriate measure under the circumstances of this case, where the defendant owes unpaid fines and is also subject to mandatory restitution that has not yet been quantified,” the judge said. She gave prison officials ten days to issue a check to the court for more than $27,828.
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