He knew these charges were coming
Sean Combs Indicted on Charges of Sex Trafficking and Racketeering
In charges unsealed a day after his arrest in Manhattan, the music mogul known as Diddy was accused of running a “criminal enterprise” that threatened and abused women.
Sean Combs, the embattled music mogul, has been indicted on three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
In the indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Mr. Combs of running a “criminal enterprise” that for years threatened, abused and coerced women, and included accusations of forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. To commit these acts, the prosecutors said, Mr. Combs relied on the help of the employees of his business.
Mr. Combs, 54, was expected to appear for an arraignment later on Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Manhattan.
The charges against Mr. Combs were revealed a day after he was
arrested in a Manhattan hotel room, following a federal investigation that has been active since at least early this year. In March,
federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Fla.
The arrest of Mr. Combs — a producer, record executive and performer who is also known as Diddy and Puff Daddy — makes him the highest-profile figure in the music world to face criminal charges for sexual misconduct since R. Kelly, the R&B singer who, after trials in New York and Chicago, was
sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for child sex crimes, sex trafficking and racketeering.
Mr. Combs was a key figure in the global rise of hip-hop as a commercial force in the 1990s and 2000s, helping to make stars of rappers and R&B singers like the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. But he has been under public scrutiny since a former girlfriend,
Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit in November accusing him of years of sexual and physical abuse.
Mr. Combs
settled the suit with Ms. Ventura — an R&B singer known as Cassie — in one day, and denied any wrongdoing. But legal pressure quickly mounted, with
the filing of five successive lawsuits by women alleging sexual assault and three other sexual misconduct suits, all of which Mr. Combs’s lawyers are fighting in court.
After his arrest on Monday, lawyers for Mr. Combs said they were disappointed with the decision to prosecute him.
“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,” Mr. Combs’s legal team said in a statement. “He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal.”
The statement added that he had been cooperative with the investigation and had “voluntarily relocated to New York” in anticipation of the charges.
These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide,” his lawyers added, “and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Speculation about the federal case against Mr. Combs has been building ever since the raid on his homes. Prosecutors have been sending subpoenas to witnesses for months.
In anticipation of an indictment, Mr. Combs recently traveled to New York to make himself available to law enforcement. For days he had been staying at the Park Hyatt New York hotel on West 57th Street, largely hunkering down while awaiting any news but also drawing some attention on social media with a visit to Harlem, where he grew up.
Got damn