Two properties belonging to music mogul Sean Combs were searched by federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement. Photo / AP
Two properties belonging to rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were searched on Monday by federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation, two law enforcement officials told theAssociated Press.
The officials said the searches were connected to a sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York. It’s not clear whether Combs was the target of the investigation. The officials were not authorised to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Homeland Security Investigations said it “executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners”.
The lawsuit alleges that Combs, Harve Pierre, the former president of Combs’ record label Bad Boy Entertainment, and an unnamed man gave the accuser drugs and alcohol and then took turns raping her inside Daddy’s House Recording Studio, a studio owned by Combs and Bad Boy, in 2003.
Combs, 54, denied the allegations in a statement. A request for comment from Pierre was sent to Bad Boy Entertainment.
According to the lawsuit, Pierre met the teenager in Michigan and flew with her on a private plane to meet Combs.
“As alleged in the complaint, defendants preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager as part of a sex trafficking scheme that involved plying her with drugs and alcohol and transporting her by private jet to New York City, where she was gang raped by the three individual defendants at Mr. Combs’ studio,” the accuser’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, said in a statement. “The depravity of these abhorrent acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.”
The accuser’s lawyers say the claim was brought under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which allows accusers to file civil complaints involving sexual assault claims after the statute of limitations has run out.