Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution

Musician and businessman Sean Combs, 54, has been formally charged by a judge with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. Following his arrest on Monday night in New York, the charges against him by a grand jury were made public on Tuesday. In the past 10 months, Combs — better known by his artistic names Puff Daddy and Diddy — has faced at least 10 lawsuits for sexual assault.

The 14-page indictment begins: “The defendant abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct. To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources, and influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled — creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, or attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”

The arrest in New York on Monday of Combs, comes after 10 sexual assault lawsuits against the rapper and music entrepreneur, and almost a year after numerous accusations by his alleged victims became known. During this time, explicit videos have emerged where he is seen beating his victims, the FBI has searched his properties, and earlier this month a judge sentenced him to pay $100 million in a sexual abuse case where he failed to show up in court.

The first to file a suit was his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, an R&B artist known as Cassie. According to her suit, Combs raped her, subjected her to constant beatings (as seen in an explicit CNN video), drugged her, forced her to participate in orgies and other sexual encounters, and kept her away from her family and friends. Although Ventura dropped the lawsuit just one day after filing it, many other plaintiffs followed.

Just days after her lawsuit, another woman, Joi Dickerson-Neal, accused Combs of raping her in 1991, when she was a 19-year-old student, and of having recorded a video of the rape. In early December, an anonymous woman accused him and his collaborators of gang-raping her in 2003, when she was 17 years old. In February, producer Rodney Jones Jr. alleged in another lawsuit he was sexually harassed by Combs, pressured to engage in sexual acts, forced to procure sex workers for Combs and witnessed Combs giving drinks laced with drugs to people at parties.

In May, two other women came forward: a model named Crystal McKinney, who said that in 2003 he forced her to perform oral sex after drugging her in his studio; and April Lampros, who said he assaulted her when she was studying fashion in New York.

The latest lawsuit against Combs came just five days before his arrest, filed by a singer named Dawn Richard, former member of a band called Danity Kane, which Combs helped create on a television talent show called Making the Band on MTV’s music network. She claims that for years the rapper manipulated her, forcing her to comply with his whims, and preventing her from singing if she did not. He demanded that she stand in her underwear in front of him, entered her dressing room without permission, groped and slapped her buttocks, threw objects at her when he got angry, and, on occasion, did not pay her and deprived her and her partners of food and sleep.

In March, U.S. federal authorities also raided the singer’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami as part of their sex trafficking investigation. Numerous federal agents entered both homes and seized several objects.

“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,” Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said in a statement to People magazine. “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. He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal.”

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