WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Sean (Diddy) Combs faces federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in an indictment, unsealed Tuesday, claiming he hit and abused women for more than a decade and presided over an empire of sexual crimes.
The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
He is accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes days-long sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.” It also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami. He was due in court Tuesday afternoon, and his three sons arrived at the courthouse Tuesday morning to observe.
WATCH | Combs’s lawyer says he will plead not guilty:
Sean Combs to plead not guilty, lawyer says outside courtDefence lawyer Marc Agnifilo, speaking before details of a sealed indictment against Sean (Diddy) Combs were released on Tuesday, said his client is going to ‘fight this with all of his energy and all of his might.’ Combs faces federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering in New York.
Prosecutors said they would seek to have Combs detained pending trial. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that he’d fight to keep him free, and that Combs is innocent and would plead not guilty.
“His spirits are good. He’s confident,” said Agnifilo, adding Combs came to New York voluntarily to “engage the court system and start the case.”
The indictment describes Combs, the 54-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labour, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offences, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them — and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
“The evidence in this case is incredibly powerful,” prosecutors said in a document seeking Combs’s detention. They said they had interviewed over 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.
WATCH | Prosecutors take questions around Combs’s charges:
U.S. attorney takes questions after Sean (Diddy) Combs chargedDamian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, says the investigation into the music mogul is ongoing and encouraged anyone with information about the case to come forward.
Combs and his associates wielded his “power and prestige” to “intimidate, threaten and lure” women into his orbit, “often under the pretence of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says.
It says he then would use force, threats and coercion to get the women to engage with male sex workers in “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded, creating dozens of videos.
He sometimes arranged to fly the women in and ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and using intimidation and violence, according to the indictment.
Narcotics, firearms seized, indictment saysThe events could last for days, and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids “to recover from the physical exertion and drug use,” the indictment said. It said his employees facilitated “Freak Offs” by arranging travel, booking hotel rooms, stocking them with such supplies as drugs and baby oil, scheduling the delivery of IV fluids and cleaning the rooms afterward.
During a search of Combs’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles this year, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers — two of them, broken into parts, in his bedroom closet in Miami.
The indictment portrays Combs as a violent man who choked and shoved people, hit and kicked victims and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.
It alleges that Combs sometimes kept videos of victims engaging in sex acts and used the recordings as “collateral” to ensure the women’s continued obedience and silence. He also exerted control over victims by promising career opportunities, providing and threatening to withhold financial support, dictating how they looked, monitoring their health records and controlling where they lived, according to the indictment.
Law enforcement rides a vehicle near a property belonging to Sean (Diddy) Combs on March 25 in Los Angeles. (Eric Thayer/The Associated Press)As the threat of criminal charges loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to stay silent, offering bribes and supplying false narratives of what happened, the indictment says.
All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’s global music, lifestyle and clothing business.
“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,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. His office is bringing the case.
Combs returned the key in June after Mayor Eric Adams requested it back
Allegations turned him into industry pariahCombs was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.
In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fuelled settings.
The suit was settled in one day, but months later, CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”
WATCH | Combs admits to, apologies for beating ex-girlfriend:
Sean (Diddy) Combs admits to beating ex-girlfriend Cassie, posts video apology’I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,’ Sean (Diddy) Combs said in a video statement posted Sunday to Instagram and Facebook addressing 2016 security footage that showed him punching and kicking Cassie, an R&B singer who was his protégé and longtime girlfriend at the time.
The indictment refers to the attack, without naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security staffer to stay mum about it.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, declined to comment Tuesday.
Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura and Lampros did.
Combs has got out of legal trouble before. Notably, he was acquitted in 2001 of weapons charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911
