Hip-hop impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs was indicted by a grand jury on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking for alleged crimes dating back to 2008, according to a federal document unsealed Tuesday.
Combs’s charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion both carry maximum sentences of life in prison if he is convicted. The sex trafficking charge has a mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentence. A third charge, transportation for purposes of prostitution, carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.
“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,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “… 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.”
Combs pleaded not guilty to all three charges in a Tuesday afternoon court appearance. His three sons — Quincy, Christian and Justin — were also in the courtroom. He remains in federal custody and will be held without bail while he awaits trial. Combs’ attorneys said they will renew a bid for his release on Wednesday.
Combs was arrested the previous day on the federal indictment in New York, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
The arrest came almost a year after the first of 10 sexual assault lawsuits was filed against Combs, with accusations spanning the entirety of his more than 30-year career as an artist and music producer. Several of these lawsuits accused the mogul of sex trafficking, a federal crime. Speculation about an arrest had been building since March, when the Department of Homeland Security served search warrants on Combs’s mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
“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. 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,” Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Combs, said in a statement.
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. 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 statement continued.
In a letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky on Tuesday, Agnifilo said Combs is “eminently trustworthy” and “demonstrably committed to showing his innocence in Court,” citing the mogul’s decision to voluntarily come to New York and his offer to turn himself in.
He requested that Combs be released under a proposed bail package, including a $50 million bond secured by equity from Combs’s and his mother’s Miami homes.
Williams, the U.S. attorney, supported the request to keep Combs detained while awaiting trial, arguing that he is “dangerous and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.”
“If released, he remains a serious risk of flight, despite the conditions offered by his counsel. Most glaringly, the defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice,” the letter stated. “… There are simply no conditions that would ensure that the defendant’s efforts to obstruct and tamper with witnesses will stop.”
But Tarnofsky said Combs’s accusers would be potentially vulnerable if he were to remain at liberty. “The alleged victims are people with whom there is a power imbalance,” the judge said, adding that supervisors would not necessarily be able to keep him in line if he were free because “the types of behaviors we’re talking about happen behind closed doors.”
Tarnofsky also said Diddy’s word could not be relied on because of his history of drug use and the role that drugs seem to have played in the events that led to the indictment. “I don’t know that you can trust yourself,” the judge added.
Homeland Security agents did not publicly confirm the nature of their raid on Combs’s homes in March, but a law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, told The Washington Post at the time that the searches were part of a sex-trafficking investigation. During the search, law enforcement seized narcotics, more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant used in Combs’s directed sex performances called “freak offs,” the indictment stated, as well as ammunition, a drum magazine and firearms — including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.
“He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak offs as collateral against the victims,” Williams added in a Tuesday news conference. “… He maintained control over the victims in several ways, including by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities, by monitoring their whereabouts, and even by dictating their physical appearance.”
The first lawsuit against Combs was filed last November by Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs between 2007 and 2018, when she was a singer signed to his Bad Boy record label. Her suit accused Combs of more than a decade of “abuse, violence and sex trafficking,” including an incident at a Los Angeles hotel where, Ventura claimed, Combs beat her and paid hotel staff to obtain the security footage.
Ventura and Combs settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Combs maintaining his innocence. Months later, surveillance footage obtained by CNN showed Combs assaulting Ventura in 2016 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Century City hotel. The video clips showed Combs pursuing her down a hallway, throwing her to the floor as she tried to call an elevator and dragging her off-camera. The incident was referenced in the federal indictment against Combs.
Ventura, via her attorney, did not have any comment on Combs’s arrest.
Attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who represents several of the plaintiffs who have brought sexual assault claims against Combs in the past year, referenced the embattled producer’s arrest on his Instagram account Monday night, calling it “the first step on the road to justice.”
Reports circulated in July that a federal grand jury in New York was weighing evidence against Combs. By that time, eight people had accused the famed music executive of sexually assaulting or trafficking them. The allegations spanned the length of Combs’s career, with several women accusing him of raping and drugging them in the 1990s. Four people, including Ventura, have also alleged that Combs engaged in sex trafficking. Rodney Jones, a producer who worked with Combs on his most recent album, alleged that Combs was trafficking sex workers as recently as 2023.
Liza Gardner accused Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall of raping her in 1990. Joi Dickerson-Neal alleged that Combs drugged and raped her in 1991. Crystal McKinney, a former model, accused Combs of drugging and raping her during New York Fashion Week in 2003. In another suit, April Lampros alleged that Combs had raped her multiple times between 1995 and 2000, when she was a fashion student.
A lawsuit filed in December claimed that Combs and others in 2003 trafficked and raped a 17-year-old, identified in court filings as Jane Doe. In February, Jones, the producer who worked with Combs on his 2023 project “The Love Album,” accused Combs and others of sexual assault, as well as drug and sex trafficking.
Lawsuits have been filed against Combs as recently as last week. Dawn Richard of Danity Kane, a girl group formed by Combs, filed a suit on Sept. 10 accusing him of sexual and physical abuse.
Richard’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges Combs was abusive throughout the eight years they worked together. Richard accused him of groping her, threatening her and subjecting her to “inhumane working conditions,” such as depriving her and her bandmates of food and sleep for up to 48 hours “because he was high on drugs.” In the suit, Richard also claims to have witnessed Combs become physically violent with other women, including Ventura and Kim Porter, another of his former partners.
In a statement provided by Combs’s attorney last week, he denied what he called a “series of false claims” and accused Richard of seeking “a payday.”
Also last week, a Michigan judge awarded a default judgment of $100 million to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, an inmate who filed a lawsuit from prison accusing Combs of sexual assault. The judgment came after Combs failed to show up in court or file any response to the case. His attorneys said they weren’t notified of the lawsuit beforehand and will push to get the case dismissed.
“We are not done,” Williams said in his remarks on the indictment Tuesday. “This investigation is ongoing, and I encourage anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
Kelsey Ables contributed to this report.
