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

Sean “Diddy” Combs was indicted on three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The news follows an arrest Monday night in Manhattan after a months-long federal investigation.

On Tuesday, the indictment was unsealed; prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Combs of running a “criminal enterprise” that threatened, abused, and coerced women for years. Accusations included forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Additionally, prosecutors said Combs had the help of employees of his business to commit these acts.

The 54-year-old producer, record executive, and rapper is due in a Manhattan federal courthouse on Tuesday for an arraignment.

Following his arrest on Monday, Combs’ lawyers released a statement, noting their disappointment to prosecute the singer.

“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,” the statement reads. “He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal.”

His lawyers added that “these are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide” and “he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

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Earlier this year, Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach were raided by federal agents as a part of a sex-trafficking investigation. Since the raid, prosecutors have sent subpoenas to witnesses.

In February, Combs was accused of sexual assault, harassment, and sex trafficking by a music producer who worked on 2023’s The Love Album: Off the Grid. The producer, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr., filed the complaint in a New York federal court. The complaint accuses Combs of “groping and touching” his anus and trying to groom him into engaging in sexual acts with Combs, as well as other individuals. Additionally, Jones claimed Combs “forced” him to “solicit sex workers” and “perform sex acts to the pleasure of Mr. Combs.”

According to the suit obtained by PEOPLE, Jones alleges he woke up “naked, dizzy, and confused” in a “bed with two sex workers and Mr. Combs” at the rapper’s home in Miami in February 2023, where he believed he was drugged. The plaintiff claims that the “RICO enterprise” was set up to recruit sex workers — some who were underage — as well as to distribute drugs and guns out of Combs’ Miami home.

Combs was named in an additional suit by “Jane Doe,” who claimed the rapper “sex trafficked and gang raped” her while she was a minor. Additionally, Joi Dickerson-Neal filed a lawsuit against Diddy, where she claims he “intentionally” drugged and assaulted her while she was a student at Syracuse University. She claimed he filmed the assault and then used the video as “revenge porn.”

Diddy was also accused of rape, as well as physical, mental, sexual, and emotional abuse by his former partner Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, the New York Times reported. While he originally denied the allegations, calling the suit a “money grab,” the suit was quickly dropped and settled the following day with “mutual satisfaction.”

However, earlier this year, a surveillance video from March 2016 resurfaced online, showing Combs attacking Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway — something that had been described in her lawsuit. Combs has since posted an apology video, noting he is “truly sorry” and “disgusted” by his behavior. Ventura’s lawyers told Us Weekly his statement “is more about himself than the many people he has hurt.”

Combs’ case marks the most high-profile case with criminal charges against a public figure in the music scene since R. Kelly. The disgraced R&B singer was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for child sex crimes, sex trafficking, and racketeering following a widespread #MuteRKelly movement, which brought years-worth of allegations to light.