Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been indicted on sex trafficking and racketeering charges

NEW YORK (AP) Sean “Diddy” Combs presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes, coercing and abusing women for years, threatening them to keep them in line and enlisting a cast of aides to cover it up, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” including physical violence, in order “to fulfil his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct," the indictment said.

It describes him inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes days long sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.” It also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.

Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami. He was due in court this afternoon, and his three sons arrived at the courthouse in the morning to observe.

Prosecutors said they would seek to have Combs detained pending trial. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse today that he’d fight to keep him free, and that Combs is innocent and would plead not guilty.

“His spirits are good. He’s confident,” said the attorney, who said Combs came to New York voluntarily to “engage the court system and start the case.”

The indictment describes the 54-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in sex trafficking, forced labour, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offences, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women, throwing objects and kicking them. His personal assistants, security and household staff would help him hide it all.

“The evidence in this case is incredibly powerful,” prosecutors said in a document seeking Combs’ detention. They said they had interviewed over 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.

The mogul and his associates wielded his “power and prestige” to intimidate and lure women into his orbit, often under the pretence of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says. It says he then would use force, threats and coercion to get the women to engage with male sex workers in the “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded, creating dozens of videos.

He sometimes arranged to fly the women in and ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and using intimidation and violence, according to the indictment.

It said his employees facilitated “Freak Offs” which could last days, by arranging travel, booking hotel rooms, stocking them with such supplies as drugs and baby oil, scheduling the delivery of IV fluids to help recovery and cleaning the rooms afterwards.

During a search of his homes in Miami and Los Angeles this year, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers. Two of them, broken into parts, in his bedroom closet in Miami.

The indictment portrays Combs as a violent man who choked and shoved people, hit and kicked victims and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.

It alleges that Combs sometimes kept videos of victims engaging in sex acts and used the recordings as “collateral” to ensure the women’s continued obedience and silence. He also exerted control over victims by promising career opportunities, providing and threatening to withhold financial support, dictating how they looked, monitoring their health records and controlling where they lived, according to the indictment.

As the threat of criminal charges loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to stay silent, offering bribes and supplying false narratives of what happened, the indictment says.

All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing business.

“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. His office is bringing the case.

Combs returned the key in June after Mayor Eric Adams requested it back.

In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fuelled settings.

The suit was settled in one day, but months later, CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologised, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”

The indictment refers to the attack, without naming the victim, and says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security staffer to stay mum about it.

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for the singer, declined to comment.

Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.

A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.

Combs has been in legal trouble before. Notably, he was acquitted in 2001 of weapons charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people.

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