Sean “Diddy” Combs, the disgraced hip-hop mogul, faces federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in an indictment that was unsealed Tuesday. He was arrested Monday in New York after being indicted by a federal grand jury. The arrest and indictment come after a months-long sex trafficking investigation and 10 months after a flurry of women came forward with allegations of sexual and other abuse.
Prior to the unsealing of the indictment, Marc Agnifilo, Combs' attorney, said they knew what the charges would be and that Combs is “innocent of these charges.”
Here is a look at the key details of the three-count indictment.
Alleged assaults date back to 2008
The indictment covers explicit details of Combs allegedly assaulting several women since 2008. He is accused of “verbal, emotional, physical and sexual” abuse and that he “hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair” in assaults that took “days or weeks to heal."
In a large focus of the indictment, investigators said Combs orchestrated sexual encounters between his victims and male sex workers that he called “Freak Offs” — defined in the indictment as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
According to authorities, these encounters sometimes lasted for days and often involved multiple commercial sex workers, with Combs drugging the participants to “keep the victims obedient and compliant." The raids of Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami homes resulted in the seizure of supplies for the “Freak Offs,” including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, prosecutors said.
Combs accused of leading criminal enterprise
The indictment alleges that Combs and others he associated with were members of a criminal organization that engaged in several illegal activities, including sex trafficking, forced labor, prostitution-related transportation and coercion, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. Combs is accused of leading the criminal operations, and the indictment says those who worked for him, including security staff, household staff, personal assistants and “high-ranking supervisors” were all a part of the criminal enterprise, either knowingly or unknowingly.
According to prosecutors, the group surrounding Combs worked to preserve and protect Combs’ power through violent means, including by using firearms, threats of violence, coercion and verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
“Combs did not do this all on his own,” the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Damian Williams, said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.”
Williams also said Combs' employees were involved in organizing and arranging the “Freak Offs,” often supplying materials, cleaning hotel rooms after the encounters and helping to cover up the assaults.
The racketeering conspiracy charge has been famously used to bring down the Mafia and drug cartels.
Combs intimidated victims to stay silent, prosecutors say
Combs carried or brandished firearms to “intimidate or threaten others,” including victims and witnesses of his assaults, according to the indictment. In the raids of his Los Angeles and Miami homes, law enforcement officials said they found guns and ammunition, including three AR-15s with “defaced” serial numbers.
The indictment also accuses Combs of leveraging his victims’ desires to build careers in the music industry by using his money and influence to take advantage of them. Officials also said Combs used recordings of the “Freak Offs” to keep the victims from coming forward. Combs also controlled his victims’ housing, tracked their location, dictated their appearance, monitored their medical records and supplied them with drugs, investigators said.
Another court filing details several other acts of violence and intimidation Combs and his associates carried out, including kidnapping one person at gunpoint and slicing open a car’s convertible top to drop a Molotov cocktail inside, causing the car to explode. The filing also says police reports, fire department records and witnesses can all corroborate these instances.
Investigation is ongoing, more arrests are possible
Prosecutors say they have interviewed more than 50 victims of and witnesses to Combs' abuse, but that they expect more people to come forward with their accounts.
Given the ongoing nature of the investigation, prosecutors said they cannot share some details, including information about the witnesses who have provided or will provide testimony.
Williams said Tuesday that he is seeking to have Combs detained while he awaits trial. In responding to a question about whether Combs' associates or employees will face charges, Williams said he “can't take anything off the table.”
“Our investigation is very active and ongoing,” he added.
Kaitlyn Huamani, The Associated Press