Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Indicted on Sex Trafficking and Racketeering Charges

NEW YORK — Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday night in New York after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and other serious crimes. The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, alleges that Combs led a criminal enterprise engaging in a years-long pattern of abuse, violence, and coercion toward women, often using his power and influence to maintain control over them.

It describes him enticing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes days-long sexual performances called “Freak Offs.” It also indirectly mentions an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, which was captured on video.

Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities, who were conducting a sex trafficking investigation, raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami. He was due in court on Tuesday.

Over the past year, the hip-hop impresario has been sued by people who claim he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse on Tuesday morning that Combs was innocent and would plead not guilty.

The indictment portrays Sean “Diddy” Combs, the 54-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, as the leader of a criminal enterprise involved in numerous illegal activities, including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Combs is accused of repeatedly abusing women—physically striking, punching, dragging, and kicking them—while enlisting his assistants, security personnel, and household staff to help conceal his actions.

The indictment details how Combs and his associates used his “power and prestige” to intimidate and lure women under the guise of romantic relationships, only to coerce them into participating in what was called “Freak Offs.” These elaborate, drug-fueled sexual performances involved both female victims and male sex workers and were directed, recorded, and participated in by Combs. He used drugs, financial control, intimidation, and threats of violence to ensure the women’s involvement.

These events could last for days, with Combs and the victims often receiving IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use. His employees were responsible for organizing travel, booking hotel rooms, and stocking them with drugs, baby oil, lubricants, extra linens, and lighting. They also arranged for the delivery of IV fluids and cleaned the rooms afterward.

During a raid on Combs’ Miami and Los Angeles homes earlier this year, authorities seized narcotics, over a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant, as well as firearms, including AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.

The document portrays Combs as a violent man. He 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, 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. 

Prosecutors allege that all of this was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle, and clothing empire. Combs was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.

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 gotten out of legal trouble before.

In 2001, he was acquitted of weapons charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people.