New York, United States | AFP | Tuesday 18 September 2024

Sean "Diddy" Combs was charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday that accuses the superstar rapper of engaging in decades of sexual abuse of women.

Combs, 54, was arrested by federal agents in New York on Monday and is to make a first appearance in a Manhattan courtroom later on Tuesday.

Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said prosecutors will ask a judge to detain the music mogul ahead of his trial.

Williams also said that although Combs is the only person indicted for the moment the investigation is ongoing.

Combs's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, told reporters his client would plead not guilty.

"He's going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might," he added.

Combs is also charged with one count of transporting victims across state lines to engage in prostitution.

The indictment alleges that -- for decades -- he "abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct."

It accused him of running a "criminal enterprise" that carried out "sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice."

Combs allegedly engaged in a "persistent and pervasive pattern" of verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of women, the indictment said.

"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," it said.

Williams said female victims were forced to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers called "Freak Offs," which were planned and controlled by Combs and often videotaped.

"The Freak Offs sometimes lasted days at a time... and often involved a variety of narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB," he said. "The indictment alleges that Combs threatened and coerced victims to get them to participate in the Freak Offs."

Bombshell suit

The powerful music industry figure, who has gone by various monikers including Puff Daddy and P Diddy, was credited as being key to hip hop's journey from the streets to luxury clubs.

Despite his efforts to cultivate the image of a smooth party kingpin and business magnate, a spate of lawsuits describe Combs as a violent man who used his celebrity to prey on women.

The floodgates opened last year after singer Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, alleged Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion by physical force and drugs as well as a 2018 rape.

The pair met when Ventura was 19 and Combs was 37, after which he signed her to his label and they began a relationship.

The bombshell suit was settled out of court, but a string of similarly lurid sexual assault claims followed -- including one in December by a woman who alleged Combs and others gang-raped her when she was 17.

The rapper's luxury homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided by agents in March.

Disturbing surveillance video emerged in May showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Ventura, corroborating allegations she made in the now-settled case.

Global fame with dark shadow

Born Sean John Combs on 4 November 1969, in Harlem, the artist entered the industry as an intern in 1990 at Uptown Records, where he eventually became a talent director.

In 1991, he promoted a celebrity basketball game and concert at the City College of New York that left nine people dead after a stampede and resulted in a string of lawsuits.