Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces sex trafficking charges

NEW YORK – Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs faces three US federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transport to engage in prostitution, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

The indictment was unsealed after Combs, 54, was arrested in Manhattan by federal agents on Monday night, following a year in which his career was derailed by several lawsuits accusing him of physical and sexual abuse.

According to the 14-page indictment, Combs turned his business empire into a criminal enterprise in which he and his associates engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour and other crimes.

Combs threatened and coerced women to “fulfil his sexual desires”, the indictment said.

Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lawyer, said on Monday night that he was disappointed with the decision to pursue an “unjust prosecution” of the rapper and producer.

“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,” Agnifilo said. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”

Agnifilo added that Combs had voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the charges.

Combs, who has also been known as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, was a major figure in hip-hop in the 1990s and 2000s. He founded the label Bad Boy records, and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Mary J Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars.

His reputation came under fire last November when former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape during their decade-long relationship. She agreed to an undisclosed settlement one day after suing, even as Combs denied her allegations.

Lawsuits mount

His legal pressures mounted, and he has faced several civil lawsuits by women and men who accused him of sexual assault and other misconduct. His lawyers have been fighting those cases in court. Federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach six months ago.

Singer Dawn Richard, formerly of Danity Kane, last week accused Combs in a lawsuit of sexual assault, battery, sex trafficking, gender discrimination and fraud.

A Michigan judge this month ordered Combs to pay $100 million to Derrick Lee Smith, who said Combs drugged and sexually assaulted him at a party almost 30 years ago, after Combs failed to show up to defend himself in court. A lawyer for Combs said he would seek to dismiss that judgement.

Combs has also rejected claims in a February sex trafficking lawsuit by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who Combs employed as a producer on his 2023 release The Love Album: Off the Grid.

The indictment is not Combs’ first brush with the law. He was acquitted in March 2001 of bribery and weapons charges in a criminal trial stemming from a nightclub shooting that left three people wounded.

In March this year, federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, stopping him at a Miami-area airport and confiscating his electronic devices. Authorities made no announcements at the time, but a federal official said the inquiry was at least in part a human trafficking investigation.

Federal prosecutors in New York had by that time interviewed several witnesses about sexual misconduct allegations against Combs, according to a person familiar with the interviews.

Combs has vehemently denied the accusations in the suits, calling them “sickening allegations” from people looking for “a quick payday”. His lawyers have sharply criticised how the raids — which involved agents from Homeland Security Investigations brandishing guns — were carried out, calling them a “gross overuse of military-level force”.

That tone of defiance shifted after Cable News Network (CNN) published hotel surveillance video in May that showed Combs physically assaulting and kicking Ventura in 2016. Combs posted an apology video to social media in which he called his behaviour “inexcusable” and said he had sought out professional help.

A prolific producer and gifted impresario, Combs helped usher hip-hop into the mainstream with his record label, Bad Boy Entertainment. He also created a raffish, larger-than-life media persona, throwing celebrity-filled parties and presiding over a popular Music Television (MTV) reality competition show, Making the Band, in the mid-2000s. And he established a lucrative brand portfolio including fashion, liquor and a cable TV network, Revolt.

For decades, Combs has been trailed by accusations of violence, though this is the first time he is known to have faced such a broad investigation into his conduct over a period of years. In 2001, he was the subject of a highly publicised trial over a nightclub shooting, where he was acquitted on gun and bribery charges.

In recent years, he adopted a new persona, asking people to call him Love, naming his newest daughter Love and titling his first solo studio album in 17 years The Love Album: Off the Grid, which he released, independently, under a new label, Love Records.

Last year, Combs was just coming off a swirl of positive publicity tied to that album and his long career in music when Ventura filed suit with detailed and disturbing allegations stretching over more than a decade. Her complaint included accusations of sex trafficking and said that Combs had forced Ventura to have sex with male sex workers in front of him and instructed her to use websites and escort services to find sex workers to participate in drug-fuelled encounters he called “freak offs”.

While Combs decided to settle Ventura’s lawsuit, his legal team has fought the rest in court, painting the allegations as false stories drummed up to secure settlements.

In court filings, his lawyers said that a lawsuit accusing him of participating in a gang rape in 2003 had “singlehandedly irreparably damaged” Combs’ reputation on the basis of “rank, uncorroborated allegations”. And after a male music producer accused Combs in a lawsuit of making unwanted sexual contact with him, a lawyer for Combs called the plaintiff a “liar” whose accusations were “pure fiction” meant to garner headlines.

Since those lawsuits were filed, much of Combs’ brand portfolio has fallen apart.

He sold his stake in Revolt and his share of DeLeón tequila, a partnership with the spirits conglomerate Diageo. A New York charter school network ended its partnership with him.

This month, Combs’ mansion in the ritzy Holmby Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles, where federal agents carried out a raid in March, was listed on the real estate market for $61.5 million.

In the #MeToo movement and its aftermath, prosecutors have increasingly turned to sex trafficking laws to try sexual assault accusations in the federal court system. The first conviction of R. Kelly, the R&B singer, was on charges of racketeering and violations of an anti-sex-trafficking law known as the Mann Act.

Homeland Security Investigations, which often investigates sex trafficking cases, led the inquiry into Combs. The March raids were announced to the world in television news footage of agents converging on Combs’ Los Angeles mansion and carrying out electronics; the mother of one of his sons later shared footage of agents pointing guns at Justin and Christian Combs while they were being detained inside their father’s home.

Since then, federal prosecutors have been silent, quietly delivering subpoenas to potential witnesses as they built their case against Combs.

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Source – Bangkok News