Sean “Diddy” Combs, a rapper and music mogul credited with helping launch the careers of some of the biggest stars in recent years, was arrested by federal agents in New York on Monday, after facing months of civil lawsuits accusing him of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and rape.
In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday morning, federal prosecutors allege Combs and his associates threatened, abused and coerced women and others around him “to fulfill his sexual desires” – which allegedly includes forcing victims into engaging in recorded sexual activity which he referred to as “Freak Outs”.
A lawyer for the hip-hop artist called Combs “an innocent man with nothing to hide.”
“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,” his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, told The Independent via email.
Combs, formerly known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and a host of other names, has undergone a myriad of reinventions since the start of his career – but has since entered a new and unwelcome “era.”
Federal agents with US Homeland Security raided two of the rapper’s houses in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25 as part of an investigation into the allegations brought against him.
The music mogul was also recently hit with a $100 million default judgment on September 9 over an alleged sexual assault from a 1997 party against Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith.
Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge granted the award to Cardello-Smith, an inmate who filed the lawsuit against Combs, accusing him of drugging and sexually assaulting him at a party 30 years ago.
Combs, 54, has strongly denied all of the allegations against him. His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as money grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.”
On May 17, surveillence footage captured at a hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016 showed Diddy chasing his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura down the hallway before attacking her by the elevators. He then attempts to drag her back to his hotel room.
The following day, he shared an apology video to Instagram saying his behaviour was “inexcusable” and that he took “full responsibility for his actions in the video”.
The slew of allegations in lawsuits against Combs date as far back as the 1990s, when he founded his own record label, Bad Boy Records.
All the allegations against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs:
Lawsuits against the rapper began on 16 November 2023 when he was sued by singer and dancer Cassie, his former partner, who alleged years of abuse.
It was filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act, just before it expired. This act offered a one-year window for adult victims of sexual assault to come forward with civil claims regardless of the statute of limitations.
Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura
R&B singer Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging that she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Combs on many occasions over 10 years.
Her lawsuit claimed that Combs brought the singer into his “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle” not long after she met him, and signed her to his label in 2005 when she was just 19 and he was 37.
Ventura said that the pattern of abuse began as soon as their relationship started and that, as she was trying to end it in 2018, he forced himself into her Los Angeles home and raped her.
On May 17, surveillance footage obtained by CNN showed an incident which appeared to corroborate parts of Ventura’s original complaint. The video from March 2016 showed Combs chasing her down the corridor of a Los Angeles hotel and proceeding to punch and kick her outside a set of elevators.
According to the complaint, which cited the altercation as occurring “around March 2016,” Combs became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.”
The surveillance footage showed Combs leaving Ventura then returning and shoving her into a corner. He is then seen hurling an object at her, which was also cited in her complaint.
