Sean Combs Indicted on Charges of Sex Trafficking and Racketeering
The New York Times
In charges unsealed a day after his arrest in Manhattan, the music mogul known as Diddy was accused of running a “criminal enterprise” that threatened and abused women.
Sean Combs, the embattled music mogul, has been indicted on three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
In the indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Mr. Combs of running a “criminal enterprise” that for years threatened, abused and coerced women, and included accusations of forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. To commit these acts, the prosecutors said, Mr. Combs relied on the help of the employees of his business.
Mr. Combs, 54, was expected to appear for an arraignment later on Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Manhattan.
The charges against Mr. Combs were revealed a day after he was arrested in a Manhattan hotel room, following a federal investigation that has been active since at least early this year. In March, federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Fla.
The arrest of Mr. Combs — a producer, record executive and performer who is also known as Diddy and Puff Daddy — makes him the highest-profile figure in the music world to face criminal charges for sexual misconduct since R. Kelly, the R&B singer who, after trials in New York and Chicago, was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for child sex crimes, sex trafficking and racketeering.
Mr. Combs was a key figure in the global rise of hip-hop as a commercial force in the 1990s and 2000s, helping to make stars of rappers and R&B singers like the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. But he has been under public scrutiny since a former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit in November accusing him of years of sexual and physical abuse.
