Sean “Diddy” Combs, a hip-hop music mogul whose career catapulted him to global stardom in the 1990s, has been indicted as the leader of what prosecutors say was a years-long criminal enterprise that preyed on women, plied them with drugs and forced them to participate in sex performances.
An indictment unsealed Tuesday charged Combs, 54, with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has been the subject of a sweeping federal inquiry into sex-trafficking allegations since at least the beginning of the year.
The charges, which he denies, mark a stunning fall from grace for the global superstar. The indictment caps years of allegations against Combs made by women that have tarnished his image.
The charges are likely to amplify questions around the culture of the music industry because authorities allege his employees were key to facilitating his criminal behavior and covering it up.
“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,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said during a news conference Tuesday. “A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and received a key to New York City. Today, he has been indicted and will face justice in the Southern District of New York.”
The rapper and producer, who was arrested Monday in New York, pleaded not guilty to all charges in a Manhattan federal courtroom Tuesday. During the hearing, a judge ruled that Combs will remain in custody while awaiting trial.
His attorneys had requested that he remain free on bail and criticized prosecutors’ attempts to remand him into 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,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement. “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.”
The attorney said Combs was “an imperfect person but he is not a criminal” and encouraged the public to “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 indictment alleges Combs and his associates lured female victims often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes that Combs referred to as “freak offs.” Williams said Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep them obedient and compliant” during the performances.
The freak offs, which prosecutors say sometimes lasted for days, were elaborately produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often recorded, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege in a detention memo filed in court that the freak offs occurred regularly from at least 2009 through this year and that the hotel rooms where they were staged often sustained significant damage.
“He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak offs as collateral against the victims,” Williams said, adding that when the musician didn’t get his way he would hit, kick, throw objects at the victims and at times drag them by their hair.
Combs would offer women career opportunities and pay their rent or cars to keep them financially reliant on him and ensure their participation in the freak offs, according to the memo.
Because of the threats of violence, concerns that their financial support would be withdrawn and that sensitive recordings would be circulated, “victims did not believe they could refuse Combs without risking their security or facing more abuse,” Williams said.
During searches of Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March, according to the indictment, authorities seized narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant that Combs’ staff would stock in hotel rooms for the freak offs. Agents also discovered a large-capacity drum magazine with 59 rounds in his Los Angeles home and three AR-15 rifles with the serial numbers defaced in the closet of his Miami home, according to court records.
The indictment doesn’t identify any of Combs’ alleged victims by name but includes allegations echoed by his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, in a lawsuit settled last year and in several lawsuits by other women and a male producer.
Prosecutors accuse Combs and his associates of pressuring women — and in some cases attempting to bribe them — to deter them from coming forward with their experiences.
Just three days after Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs called another of his victims multiple times, prosecutors say in their memo requesting to keep Combs in custody. During the calls, Combs repeatedly asked for the victim’s support and “friendship,” and attempted to convince the woman that she had willingly engaged in acts. Combs told her that if she “needed” him, she “ain’t got worry about nothing else,” the memo states.
Prosecutors allege the conversation was a “thinly veiled attempt to coerce the victim into adopting and supporting the defendant’s false version of events.”
The detention memo also alleges that Combs was violent toward his employees and others, including by throwing them to the ground, throwing objects at them, choking, dragging and shoving them.
In one instance in December 2011, Combs and a co-conspirator allegedly kidnapped an individual at gunpoint to break into someone’s home. About two weeks later, the memo alleges, Combs’ co-conspirators set fire to a car belonging to the person they kidnapped by slicing open its convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside.
Prosecutors did not name the person who had been kidnapped and whose car was destroyed.
Before Tuesday’s indictment, Combs’ legal troubles had been building for months.
In civil lawsuits, four women have accused Combs of rape, assault and other abuses, dating back three decades. One of the allegations involved a minor. The claims sent shock waves through the music industry and put Combs’ entertainment empire in jeopardy.
Read more:What to know about the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrest, lawsuits, raids
Last week, Dawn Richard, a former member of the singing groups Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money and solo artist, sued Combs in New York, alleging sexual assault, harassment and inhumane treatment.
She alleged that Combs groped her without her consent, falsely imprisoned her and deprived her and her bandmates of basic needs, and that “submission to his depraved demands was necessary for career advancement.”
Read more:Behind the calamitous fall of hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Richard’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, said in a statement to The Times after his arrest that “given Sean Combs’ brutal beating of his girlfriend caught on video and the eight people who have now accused him of abuse in court filings, including my brave client Dawn Richard, this arrest seems long overdue. It’s a big, moving day for victims, but an arrest is only the beginning. May justice be delivered to Mr. Combs. We implore other accusers to come forward in solidarity and join us in this fight.”
Combs’ former girlfriend, Ventura — the singer known as Cassie — accused him of rape and repeated physical assaults and said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him. Combs quickly settled a lawsuit Ventura brought against him last year. Months later, a 2016 video published by CNN showed Combs chasing, kicking and dragging Ventura at an L.A. hotel.
Prosecutors allege in the detention memo that Ventura was attempting to leave a freak off when Combs attacked her. When hotel security staffer intervened, Combs offered the man “a stack of cash to ensure his silence.” When the security guard refused the money Combs staff contacted other members of the security team. Within days of the incident, the surveillance video disappeared from the hotel’s server, according to the memo. The video, the offer of cash and then the attempted cover-up are all critical pieces of evidence, prosecutors say.
Agnifilo, Combs’ attorney, said that Ventura sued after a discussion with Combs’ attorney to buy the rights to her book for $30 million did not go well. He added that Combs apologized for what was shown in the video and said the woman seen in it had attacked Combs and stole his clothes after going through his phone and discovering he had another girlfriend.
In the spring, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a federal lawsuit against Combs accusing him of sexually harassing and threatening him for more than a year.
Another accuser, Joi Dickerson-Neal, said in a lawsuit that Combs drugged and raped her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent. Liza Gardner filed a third suit in which she alleged Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall sexually assaulted her. Hall could not be reached for comment.
Another lawsuit alleges that Combs and former Bad Boy label President Harve Pierre gang-raped and sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl. Pierre said in a statement that the allegations were “disgusting,” “false” and a “desperate attempt for financial gain.”
Read more:A timeline of allegations against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Amid the barrage of lawsuits, Combs wrote on Instagram: “Enough is enough…. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Prosecutors argued in the detention memo that Combs should not be granted bail because he is a flight risk given his connections and estimated $1 billion net worth. If convicted, Combs faces at least 15 years in federal prison.
In a separate letter to the court, Combs’ legal team argued that he has been cooperative and should be granted bail. Combs had offered to turn himself in and said he’s willing to put up his Miami estate as collateral, is in the process of selling his jet, and that he and his family have surrendered their passports.
“He has never run from a challenge, and he will not run from this one,” his attorneys wrote.
Combs is the latest high-profile figure in the music industry to face criminal charges related to sexual misconduct. In 2022, R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking.
Times staff writers Alexandra Del Rosario, Nardine Saad and August Brownand researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
