JUDGE’S ORDERS

R. Kelly’s Prison Commissary Account to Be Used to Pay Off Fines, Restitution

A judge has decided $27,828 in the singer’s commissary account would be better used elsewhere.

A federal judge has ordered R. Kelly’s prison commissary account to be used to pay off his outstanding court fines and potentially used to pay restitution towards his victims. U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly decided that $27,828 in the R&B singer’s account should instead be turned over to the court clerk in the form of a trust account to go towards $140,000 in fines that the convicted sex trafficker owes. The judge found no merit to Kelly’s claims that the Bureau of Prisons and the government “encumbered Mr. Kelly’s funds,” according to the released opinion, as he not only owes the court fines, but an additional, yet-to-be determined sum for his victims’ restitution. The multiplatinum artist was sentenced to 30 years in prison on June 29 for eight counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering.