Guns and ammunition, drugs and large amounts of baby oil and lubricant related to alleged violent sex events dubbed "Freak Offs" were found during the raid of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs' Miami Beach mansion, according to a new federal indictment charging him with sex trafficking and racketeering.
The indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges Combs hit and abused women for over a decade and presided over an empire of sexual crimes as he "engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals."
The indictment details allegations dating to 2008 that he abused, threatened and coerced women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.” He is accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” in the indictment, which refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and on Miami Beach's exclusive Star Island.
He appeared in court Tuesday afternoon, where a magistrate ordered him to be held without bail. The music mogul pleaded not guilty during the appearance.
“Not guilty,” Combs told a court, standing to speak after listening to the allegations with his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.
U.S. & World
Prosecutors wanted him jailed. His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky sided with the government.
Combs, 54, took a long swig from a water bottle, then was led out of court without handcuffs. As he walked out, he turned toward family members in the audience.
“Mr. Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent,” his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after court. As a start, he said he would appeal the bail decision.
Federal prosecutors called him dangerous.
“Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades. He used the vast resources of his company to facilitate his abuse and cover up his crimes. Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told a court. She also said he had “extensive and exhaustive history of obstruction of justice,” including alleged bribery and witness intimidation.
Combs is accused in the indictment of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them — and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help hide it all.
The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise engaged in or attempting to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
The “Freak Offs” were “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs “arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded," the indictment said. It said he sometimes arranged to fly the women in and ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support, and using intimidation and violence.
The events could last for days, and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover from the exertion and drug use, the indictment said.
During the searches of Combs’ homes in Miami Beach and Los Angeles this year, law enforcement seized narcotics and more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to the indictment.
Also found were firearms and ammunition, "including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, as well as a drum magazine," the indictment said.
"On more than one occasion, Combs himself carried or brandished firearms to intimidate and threaten others, including victims of and witnesses to his abuse," the indictment said.
Combs' lawyer said his client didn’t own the guns at his house, noting that he employs a security company.
As the threat of criminal charges loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to stay silent, offering bribes and supplying false narratives of what happened, the indictment says.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Combs and an unidentified co-conspirator of kidnapping someone at gunpoint a few days before Christmas in 2011 in order to facilitate a break-in at another person’s home. Two weeks later, they wrote, Combs set fire to someone’s vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping in a Molotov cocktail.
All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing empire.
Combs, 54, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.
In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.
The suit was settled in one day, but months later, CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”
The indictment refers to the attack, without naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security staffer to stay mum about it.
Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
Agnifilo acknowledged Combs was “not a perfect person," saying he'd used drugs and had been in “toxic relationships” but was getting treatment and therapy.
“The evidence in this case is extremely problematic," the attorney told the court.
He maintained that the case stemmed from one long-term, consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. He didn't name the woman, but the details matched those of Combs’ decade-long involvement with Cassie.
The “Freak Offs,” Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.
“Is it sex trafficking? Not if everybody wants to be there,” Agnifilo said, arguing that authorities were intruding on his client’s private life.
Prosecutors, however, said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow. They said they would use financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.
Combs nodded his head at times as his lawyer spoke and occasionally leaned over to converse with them when they were not. The impresario watched other parts of the proceeding expressionlessly, looking straight ahead.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams says Combs did not act alone.
During a news conference Tuesday, Williams said Combs’ security and household staff, as well as operators high up in the music industry were complicit. Williams says they cleaned up damaged hotel rooms and "delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers.”
“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice," Williams said.
Combs returned the key in June after Mayor Eric Adams requested it back.
Williams says the investigation is ongoing, and is urging "anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.
In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people. His then-protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and other charges and served about eight years in prison.
