Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Charged With Racketeering, Sex Trafficking

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with three federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

According to the 14-page indictment, Combs turned his business empire into a criminal enterprise in which he and his associates engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor and other crimes.

Combs threatened and coerced women to “fulfill his sexual desires,” the indictment said.

Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lawyer, said on Monday night he was disappointed with the decision to pursue an “unjust prosecution” of the rapper and producer.

“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,” Agnifilo said. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”

Agnifilo added that Combs voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the charges.

Combs, who has also been known as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, was a major figure in hip-hop in the 1990s and 2000s. He founded the label Bad Boy records, and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars.

LAWSUITS MOUNT

His legal pressures mounted, and he has faced several civil lawsuits by women and men who accused him of sexual assault and other misconduct. His lawyers have been fighting those cases in court. Federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida six months ago.

Combs has also rejected claims in a February sex trafficking lawsuit by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who Combs employed as a producer on his 2023 release “The Love Album: Off the Grid.”

The indictment is not Combs’ first brush with the law. He was acquitted in March 2001 of bribery and weapons charges in a criminal trial stemming from a nightclub shooting that left three people wounded.