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Following the arrest of music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs last night in Manhattan, federal prosecutors have unsealed the indictment. Diddy is charged with three felony counts of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The unsealed indictment lays out the charges against the music mogul, alleging that he “threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires” for years. Federal prosecutors argue that Combs created a “criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in” various crimes including “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
At the center of the indictment are parties that Diddy called ‘freak offs’ where he recorded victims engaging in forced sex acts. Prosecutors allege Diddy used force to “cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Victims were often plied with illegal drugs to control them for long stretches of time, with participants often needing “IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion.” Prosecutors also allege that Diddy used the electronic recordings of these ‘freak offs’ as “collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims.”
Court documents reveal that the U.S. Government is seeking to recover significant financial assets from Diddy, and that he could be on the hook for “any and all property, real and personal” and an undetermined “sum of money” involved in these alleged crimes. The indictment does not specifically list any assets that may be targeted.
The indictment also alleges that Diddy used his commercial enterprise as a key component of his criminal enterprise. Prosecutors allege that several of his employees were “to carry out, facilitate, and cover up his abuse and commercial sex.”
“Those employees — including security staff, household staff, personal assistants, and high-ranking supervisors — and other close associates acted as Combs’ intermediaries, and their conduct was facilitated and assisted by Combs’ control of the Combs business,” prosecutors allege. The documents also allege that federal agents seized 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant during the raid on his Miami and Los Angeles homes.
The indictment against Diddy includes alleged criminal acts going back 16 years. The racketeering count covers acts allegedly committed by the defendant beginning in 2008, while the sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges started in 2009. “On numerous occasions,” Combs would assault women by “among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at and kicking them” the indictment reads.
In May 2024, Diddy apologized for his violent behavior after a leaked hotel video showed him dragging his then girlfriend Cassie Ventura down the hallway after brutally and viciously beating her for trying to flee in an elevator.
Shortly after the indictment was unsealed, Diddy pleaded not guilty to all charges in a New York courtroom. The rap star was handcuffed at the time, and it remains unclear if Diddy will spend time in jail or be allowed to post bond or live under monitored house arrest.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams (pictured) has said the investigation into Diddy’s conduct is not done. “A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City,” Williams told reporters. “Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice in the Southern District of New York. We are not done. This investigation is ongoing, and I encourage anyone with information about this case to come forward and do it quickly.”
