In March, federal agents searched the Miami and Los Angeles homes of Sean “Diddy” Combs for evidence of the music industry icon’s alleged involvement in a sex trafficking scandal.
Combs was arrested Monday and charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to an unsealed indictment against him by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York Tuesday.
Combs has pleaded not guilty and is being denied bail.
Here’s what we know.
Who is Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs?
Sean Love Combs, 54, also known as P. Diddy, Puff Daddy or Diddy, is an R&B artist, rapper and record producer and executive. He owns his own record label, Bad Boy Records, which he founded in 1993.
Diddy also owns two Florida homes.
Diddy’s been nominated for myriad industry accolades, from People’s Choice awards, to lifetime achievement awards and Grammys. He’s got 18 trophies under his belt and has been nominated for awards more than 60 times throughout his multi-decade career.
Recently, Puff Daddy has been in the news for a string of serious sexual and domestic abuse allegations. He’s facing multiple lawsuits accusing him of rape and sexual assault.
What was Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs charged with?
According to the indictment, federal prosecutors allege Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others” to “fulfill his sexual desires” in a “recurrent and widely known” pattern of abuse. Combs’ abuse, they claim, ranged from emotional and verbal to physical and sexual.
Combs was arrested on one count of sex trafficking, one count of racketeering and one count of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Prosecutors allege his “criminal enterprise” included sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, kidnapping, bribery, drug offenses and arson, among other crimes.
He “manipulated women to participate in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with male commercial sex workers.” To ensure their participation, Combs would distribute drugs like ketamine, ecstasy and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), and control their careers or leverage his money, “threatening to cut off (financial support), and using intimidation and violence.”
The indictment also alleges that Combs punched, struck, dragged and kicked various women since at least 2008, and forced employees to “cover up his abuse and commercial sex” operation. Other incidents involving an armed kidnapping and blowing up a car.
What is a ‘freak off’? Police seized more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil from Diddy’s homes
The indictment refers to Combs’ alleged “freak off” parties, or “elaborate and produced sex performances” that were recorded without many victims’ consent and at times used as collateral against them.
In the parties, which could last multiple days, Combs “arranged, directed” and “masturbated during” the “performances” by sex workers with him and his employees distributing drugs to victims, partly to keep them “obedient and compliant.”
In the raids of Combs’ homes in March, Los Angeles and Miami law enforcement seized “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant,” which the indictment said was used when Combs and his employees booked hotel rooms for freak offs along with extra bedsheets and lighting.
During the raids, police also seized “evidence” of the crimes in the indictment and three AR-15s with scratched-off serial numbers.
How much time would Diddy get?
If Combs is convicted of the three criminal charges brought against him, he will face up to life in prison, with a minimum of a 15-year sentence.
Where is P. Diddy being detained?
“Combs will be held by himself at the Special Housing Unit in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn until his next court appearance Wednesday afternoon, according to a law enforcement official,” CNN reported on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried and Ghislaine Maxwell were all held at the same Special Housing Unit.
Diddy’s arrest follows lawsuits from Cassie Ventura, Dawn Richard, more
In November of last year, Combs’ former girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura sued him, alleging the Bad Boy Records founder lured her into an ‘ostentatious, fast-paced and drug-fueled lifestyle,’ raped and beat her, and allegedly forced her into ‘repeated unwanted sexual encounters’ with male prostitutes he hired, over a period of 10 years,” according to a report from The Palm Beach Post.
The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount the next day, but months later CNN released a video of the rapper striking and dragging the “Me & U” singer in 2016. He later apologized in a May Instagram video and said he makes “no excuses” for his behavior.
Soon after Cassie came forward in November, more lawsuits followed.
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Joi Dickerson-Neal alleged that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her in January 1991. She shared a video of the assault with others in the music industry, according to her lawsuit filed in New York.
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In December, an anonymous person filed a lawsuit alleging Combs and his associates raped her when she was 17 years old.
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This year, in February, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr., a music producer who worked with Combs on his most recent record, “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” accused him of sexual assault. In the lawsuit, he also accused Combs and his associates, including his 30-year-old son, Justin Dior Combs, his chief of staff and Combs Global Enterprises, of participating in “a sex-trafficking venture.”
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In a lawsuit filed in April, April Lampros accused the rapper of battery and sexual assault in the mid-90s, when she was a college student in New York.
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Model Crystal McKinney sued Combs in May, alleging that he assaulted her at his New York City studio in 2003 and forced her to perform oral sex, then had her “blackballed” in the modeling industry.
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In June, Michigan inmate Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith filed a civil lawsuit for an alleged 1997 sexual assault. This month, the convict was granted $100 million in default judgment after Combs failed to respond or appear in court. In response, Combs filed a pair of emergency motions on Sept. 12 to dismiss the multimillion-dollar judgment.
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Earlier this month, Dawn Richard, formerly of the Bad Boy Records girl group Danity Kane and trio Diddy Dirty Money, sued Combs on 21 counts of sexual assault and battery, sex trafficking, gender discrimination and copyright infringement.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Diddy Combs facing life in prison. What we know about the charges
