Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday morning that charged the rap icon with racketeering and sex trafficking by force.
Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,” prosecutors said in court documents.
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Prosecutors said that Combs carried out this scheme by relying “on the employees, resources, and influence of the multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled—creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
Prosecutors say that in all times relevant to the indictment, Combs “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals. This abuse was, at times, verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual.”
The indictment made reference to a video that surfaced earlier this year of Combs beating his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel back in 2016 — an incident that he admitted happened.
“On numerous occasions from at least in or about 2009 and continuing for years, COMBS assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them,” the indictment said.
Prosecutors said that Diddy engaged in lengthy sex parties referred to as “Freak Offs” that could last days in which or his associates lured women in under the guise of interest in a romantic relationship.
Combs then used “force, threats of force, and coercion, to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers” during the events, prosecutors said. “In arranging these Freak Offs, COMBS, with the assistance of members and associates of the Combs Enterprise, transported, and caused to be transported, commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally.”
There was heavy drug use at the “Freak Offs”, which Combs allegedly recorded, sometimes without the women knowing.
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