The arrest came almost a year after the first of 10 sexual assault lawsuits was filed against Combs (pictured at an event in 2022) with accusations spanning the entirety of his more than 30-year career as an artist and music producer. Photo / Getty Images
The arrest came almost a year after the first of 10 sexual assault lawsuits was filed against Combs (pictured at an event in 2022) with accusations spanning the entirety of his more than 30-year career as an artist and music producer. Photo / Getty Images
The US Attorney’s office has said it believes Combs is a flight risk.
Combs entered a not-guilty plea at an appearance in a Manhattan court on Tuesday.
Warning: Mentions abuse, violence.
Hip-hop impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs was indicted by a grand jury on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking for crimes as early as 2008, according to a federal document unsealed Tuesday.
The indictment alleges that the embattled music producer “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”. He is also accused of creating a criminal organisation that carried out and covered up his alleged crimes, including “sex trafficking, forced labour, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offences, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice”.
“This office is determined to investigate and prosecute anyone who engages in sex trafficking, no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be,” said Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York. " … A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice.”
Combs was arrested the previous day on the federal indictment in New York, according to the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
The arrest came almost a year after the first of 10 sexual assault lawsuits was filed against Combs, with accusations spanning the entirety of his more than 30-year career as an artist and music producer. Several of these lawsuits accused the mogul of sex-trafficking, a federal crime. Speculation of an arrest has been building since March, when the Department of Homeland Security executed search warrants on Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean Combs, speaks to members of the media while arriving at court in New York on Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2024. Photo / Getty Images
Details about Combs’ arrest remained unclear Monday night. His representatives declined to answer several questions about the events leading to the arrest. According to the Associated Press, Combs was arrested in a hotel lobby in Manhattan and remains in federal custody.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. attorney’s office. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community,” Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Combs, said in a statement.
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court,” the statement continued.
In a letter to US. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky, Williams supported the request to keep Combs detained while awaiting trial, arguing that he is “dangerous and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.”
“If released, he remains a serious risk of flight, despite the conditions offered by his counsel. Most glaringly, the defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice,” the letter stated. “… There are simply no conditions that would ensure that the defendant’s efforts to obstruct and tamper with witnesses will stop.”
Homeland Security agents did not publicly confirm the nature of their raid on Combs’ homes in March, but a law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, told The Washington Post at the time that the searches were part of a sex-trafficking investigation.During the search, law enforcement seized narcotics, more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant used in Combs’ directed sex performances called “freak offs,” the indictment stated, as well as ammunition, a drum magazine and firearms - including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.
“He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak offs as collateral against the victims,” Williams added in a Tuesday news conference. “… He maintained control over the victims in several ways, including by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities, by monitoring their whereabouts, and even by dictating their physical appearance.”
The first lawsuit against Combs was filed last November by Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs between 2007 and 2018, when she was a singer signed to his Bad Boy record label. Her suit accused Combs of more than a decade of “abuse, violence and sex trafficking,” including an incident at a Los Angeles hotel where, Ventura claimed, Combs beat her and paid hotel staff to obtain the security footage.
Video footage obtained by CNN appears to show Sean 'Diddy' Combs assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016. Photo / via CNN video
Ventura and Combs settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Combs maintaining his innocence. Months later, surveillance footage obtained by CNN showed Combs assaulting Ventura in 2016 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Century City hotel. The video clips showed Combs pursuing her down a hallway, throwing her to the floor as she tried to call an elevator and dragging her off-camera. The incident was referenced in Combs’ federal indictment.
Ventura, via her attorney, did not have any comment on Combs' arrest.
Attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who represents several of the plaintiffs who have brought sexual assault claims against Combs in the past year, referenced the embattled producer’s arrest on his Instagram account on Monday night, calling it “the first step on the road to justice”.
Reports circulated in July that a federal grand jury in New York was weighing evidence against Combs. By that time, eight people had accused the famed music executive of sexually assaulting or trafficking them. The allegations spanned the length of Combs' career, with several women accusing him of raping and drugging them in the 1990s. Four people, including Ventura, have also alleged that Combs engaged in sex trafficking.Rodney Jones, a producer who worked with Combs on his most recent album, alleged that Combs was trafficking sex workers as recently as 2023.
Liza Gardner accused Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall of raping her in 1990. Joi Dickerson-Neal alleged that Combs drugged and raped her in 1991. Crystal McKinney, a former model, accused Combs of drugging and raping her during New York Fashion Week in 2003.In another suit, April Lampros alleged that Combs had raped her multiple times between 1995 and 2000, when she was a fashion student.
A lawsuit filed in December claimed that Combs and others in 2003 trafficked and raped a 17-year-old, identified in court filings as Jane Doe. In February, Jones, the producer who worked with Combs on his 2023 project, The Love Album, accused Combs and others of sexual assault, as well as drug- and sex-trafficking.
Lawsuits have been filed against Combs as recently as last week. Dawn Richard of Danity Kane, a girl group formed by Combs, filed a suit on September 10 accusing him of sexual and physical abuse.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges Combs was abusive throughout the eight years he and Richard worked together. Richard accused him of groping her, threatening her and subjecting her to “inhumane working conditions”, such as depriving Richard and her bandmates of food and sleep for up to 48 hours “because he was high on drugs”. In the suit, Richard also claims to have witnessed Combs become physically violent with other women, including Ventura and Kim Porter, his former partners.
In a statement provided by Combs’ attorney, he denied what he called a “series of false claims” and accused Richard of seeking “a payday”.
Also last week, a Michigan judge awarded a default judgment of $100 million to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, an inmate who filed a lawsuit from prison accusing Combs of sexual assault. Attorneys for Combs said they weren’t notified of the lawsuit beforehand and will push to get the case dismissed.
“We are not done,” Williams said in his remarks on the indictment on Tuesday. “This investigation is ongoing, and I encourage anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
