Sean 'Diddy' Combs has been arrested in New York and indicted on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering following an ongoing investigation and multiple allegations of sexual assault and abuse. Racketeering is the the act or practice (setting up a scheme or 'racket') of making money through dishonest, coercive or illegal activities.
Combs' arrest follows two raids on his properties in LA and Miami as part of the sex trafficking investigation by US homeland security officials and multiple law enforcement sources, according to CBS.
The musician has faced a series of allegations from sexual assault to abuse, including by his ex-partner Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura. Combs has denied all the claims against him.
On Monday night, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said, 'Earlier this evening, federal agents arrested Sean Combs, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY.'
As well as the allegations he faces from his former partner, Combs has been confronted with allegations that he raped an underage girl and tried to 'groom' a producer and force him to have sex with another man. He also faces a number of civil lawsuits.
Combs' attorney, Marc Agnifilo, told the BBC: 'We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution. 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 has added that Combs will not plead guilty and that he will 'fight like hell' to get his client released from custody.
All the allegations against Sean 'Diddy' Combs
November 2023
The rapper's legal problems started in November 2023 when Ventura (Cassie) filed a lawsuit against him. She alleges that she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Combs on several occasions over 10 years.
Her lawsuit claimed that he brought her into his 'ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fuelled lifestyle' when she was 19 and he was 37 and signed her to his label, Bad Boy Records.
The same week, two other women filed lawsuits against him alleging abuse and assault. One woman alleged that Combs choked her for so long that she passed out.
One of which was Joie Dickerson-Neal who filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs drugged her, sexually assaulted her and secretly recorded the assault while she was a college student in 1991. She claims she reluctantly agreed to go to dinner with him and alleges that she was drugged 'resulting in her being in a physical state where should could not independently stand or walk'.
According to NBC News, she later filed reports in New York and New Jersey and was told by colleagues they were 'terrified that Combs would retaliate' and that they would 'lose future business and music opportunities'.
Since November, three more women have come forward with lawsuits alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Combs. Two of the women said they were teenagers at the time of the alleged assaults.
Combs immediately denied the allegations and a spokesperson for the musician called the lawsuits a 'money grab'.
An anonymous plaintiff then accused Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall of raping her and her friend in 1990 or 1991 after meeting at an event in New York. The lawsuit alleges that Combs and Hall invited the women to Hall's apartment for an afterparty where the plaintiff 'was offered more drinks and was coerced into having sex with Combs'.
A few days later, Combs allegedly visited the plaintiff and her friend and began 'choking [the anonymous plaintiff] to the point that she passed out'.
December 2023
In December, another civil lawsuit was brought out against Combs alleging that he and two other men had 'sex trafficked' a woman when she was 17 years old.
The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, accused Combs of plying her with drugs and alcohol at his New York studio in 2003 and then raping her with two associates. The lawsuit accused him of a 'sex trafficking scheme' where Jane Doe was flown by private jet from Michigan to New York.
At the time, Combs released a statement saying: '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.'
He added, 'We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies. We will address these outlandish allegations in court and take all appropriate action against those who make them.'
February 2024
Earlier this year, new accusations came to light in a civil lawsuit filed by Combs' former producer Rodney Jones Jr, who said the rapper made unwanted sexual advances and tried to 'groom' him into having sex with others.
Rodney Jones Jr alleged he was 'subjected to unwanted advances by associates of Diddy and his direction' and that he was forced to engage in relations with the sex workers Combs had hired. The producer claims to have video and audio evidence of Combs 'engaging in serious illegal activity' and says rapper 50 Cent's former girlfriend and the mother of his children, Daphne Joy, is one of the alleged sex workers.
The lawsuit also alleges that Combs hosted 'sex-trafficking parties' with underage women.
March 2024
Combs denied the new allegations but his properties were raided as part of a criminal investigation. He was stopped at an airport in Miami and had to hand over his electronics to authorities.
May 2024
CCTV footage of Combs attacking and beating Ventura from March 2016 was posted by CNN, an event that featured in her civil suit. According to the complaint, Combs became 'extremely intoxicated and punched Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye'.
The following day, 19 May, he shared an apology video on Instagram saying his behaviour was 'inexcusable' and that he took 'full responsibility for his actions in the video.' The day after Ventura filed the lawsuit, it was settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
Ventura told CNN she had chosen to 'resolve this matter amicably'. However, Combs' attorney said the settlement was 'in no way an admission of wrongdoing'.
Following the shocking CCTV footage of Combs attacking Ventura, former model Crystal McKinney filed a new lawsuit claiming the rapper sexually assaulted her at his recording studio in New York City in 2003.
She alleged that she smoked marijuana at his studio, which she 'later came to understand' was laced with a narcotic or intoxicating substance, and that Combs led her to the bathroom where he forced her to perform oral sex.
Days later, April Lampros, who met Combs will she was a Fashion Institute of Technology student in New York alleged that he sexually assaulted her multiple times between 1995 and the early 2000s. Lampros claimed she felt like the 'walls were closing in on her' after sipping her drink and Combs took her back to a hotel and allegedly raped her before she passed out.
In 2023, Lampros alleged that someone approached her partner at the time to inform her that 'Mr Combs apparently recorded them having sex without her knowing and showed multiple people'. Grazia has contacted Combs' team for a response.
September 2024
On 9 September, he was hit with a $100 million default judgement 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. The suit alleges that Combs and Cardello-Smith had sex with a group of women and Cardello-Smith claims to have felt Combs' hand touching him. He also alleges that Combs served him a spiked drink that caused him to pass out and when he woke up Combs was having sex with a woman. Combs' attorneys said Cardello-Smith's complaint was 'objectively unbelievable and incoherent' and asserted that the plaintiff had 'a history of filing frivolous lawsuits'.
According to a lawsuit filed in New York federal court, Dawn Richard has also accused the musician of carrying out years of physical and sexual abuse against her and others while they worked together.
She accuses him of withholding payment for work on albums, groping her, making lewd comments, attempting to strike her, throwing household items at her, hosting parties where inebriated young girls were sexually violated, withholding food and other basic necessities during recording, and making death threats when she tried to intervene in alleged abuse against Ventura. Erica Wolff, an attorney for Combs, has called the lawsuit 'false'.
She said, 'Mr. Combs is shocked and disappointed by this lawsuit. In an attempt to rewrite history, Dawn Richard has now manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour.'
On 16 September, Combs was arrested in New York as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation. He has been indicted on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. His attorney says he plans to plead guilty to all allegations.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, covering TV, celebrity interviews, news and features.