Secrets of Diddy’s billionaire boys club: Rapper wooed Wall Street elite — who praised him as ‘genius’ before sex-trafficking probe
NY Post
Sean “Diddy” Combs aggressively marketed himself to the ultra-rich as he turned his edgy rap glamor into a billion-dollar fortune.
Billionaires told The Post he would cold email with business proposals, while other Wall Streeters acclaimed him as a “genius” and one CEO of the New York Stock Exchange called him an “inspiration” on a par with the Founding Fathers
But after federal investigators raided his Los Angeles and Miami homes as part of what law enforcement sources have told The Post is a sex-trafficking investigation led by the Southern District of New York, his career as an entrepreneur and investor is in jeopardy. Diddy has denied wrongdoing and called the probe “a witch hunt.”
Diddy was first declared a billionaire by hip-hop wealth expert Zack O’Malley Greenburg in 2022, but had coveted the status for years, telling Forbes in 1999, “I wanted to be very, very rich.”
Along the way he acquired a Rolodex littered with bold-faced names: he partnered with billionaire investor Ron Burkle; was “mentored” by hedge fund guru Ray Dalio; had his fashion line sold in Macy’s and Dillards; went into business with alcohol giant Diageo; opened the New York Stock Exchange with Estée Lauder heir William Lauder; struck deals with Zac Posen and Liz Claiborne; 50% owned his own TV channel Revolt; launched a water range with Mark Wahlberg; and teamed up with Salesforce’s Marc Benioff to launch a black business marketplace.
In 2003, he sent the then owner of the Dallas Maverick Mark Cuban an email asking to design the uniforms for the NBA team, Cuban told The Post. They had never met so the cold email was a bold move.
