Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrested by federal agents in New York

It was not instantly clear on what prices Combs, the rapper-turned-music mogul, was arrested.

Combs has confronted a wave of lawsuits — one as current as final week — accusing him of sexual assault and misconduct since November, when former girlfriend Casandra Ventura sued him in federal courtroom, accusing him of years of bodily and sexual abuse.

Ventura, who’s greatest identified by her stage title, Cassie, was as soon as signed to Combs’ Dangerous Boy file label. The 2 settled her lawsuit a day after it was filed, with out disclosing the phrases of the settlement. An legal professional for Combs stated the settlement was not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. He beforehand denied the allegations.

Since then, plenty of others have sued, together with Daybreak Richard, who alleged that he groped and threatened her when he employed her from 2005 to 2012 and that she witnessed him brutally beat Ventura. Combs has vehemently denied the accusations within the lawsuits, saying they had been “sickening allegations” from folks searching for “a fast payday.”

However in Could, after CNN launched lodge video of Combs kicking, punching and throwing Ventura on the ground in a hallway in Los Angeles in 2016, he apologized in a video on Instagram during which he stated that his habits was “inexcusable” and that he had sought remedy. The video was later faraway from his web page.

Richard, who was a member of the lady group Danity Kane, which Combs fashioned on the MTV actuality competitors “Making the Band,” and later the group Diddy — Soiled Cash, sued Combs final week.

An legal professional stated Combs was “shocked and dissatisfied” by Richard’s lawsuit, which, like Ventura’s criticism, depicts him as controlling and violent.

Ventura’s lawsuit included allegations of intercourse trafficking. She alleged that he regularly beat her, that he compelled her to interact in intercourse acts with male prostitutes — drug-fueled encounters Combs known as “freak offs” and typically recorded — and that in 2018, as she was attempting to finish their relationship, he compelled his manner into her dwelling and raped her.

Richard stated in her go well with that she attended “drug-fueled events,” the place company had been required to give up their telephones. She additionally stated she witnessed what she believed had been inebriated underage ladies being sexually violated by Combs and his company.

In March, federal investigators searched Combs’ properties in Miami and Los Angeles.

Investigators interviewed a number of folks in relation to allegations of intercourse trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of unlawful narcotics and firearms, a supply acquainted with the investigation instructed NBC Information in March.

The warrant to go looking Combs’ properties got here from the Southern District of New York, NBC Information has reported. 

Combs, who has additionally passed by such names as Puffy, Puff Daddy and Love, based Dangerous Boy within the early Nineties. He’s considered a trailblazer of hip-hop, style and media, having created the Sean John clothes line and launched the Revolt TV channel, which he offered his stake in over the summer season.

Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer on Combs’ most up-to-date album, alleged in a lawsuit in February that Combs made undesirable sexual contact, compelled him to rent prostitutes and pressured him to take part in intercourse acts with them. Jones stated he lived and traveled with Combs from September 2022 to November 2023, throughout which era he recorded hours of video and audio of Combs, his workers and others “participating in severe criminality.”

His attorneys, Rodney S. Diggs and Tyrone Blackburn, who’re additionally representing different Combs accusers, stated Combs’ “lengthy awaited arrest” was “an necessary step in the direction of justice for all of Mr. Combs’ victims.”

“We go away the felony side of this case within the palms of the folks and justice system,” they stated Monday evening. “As for the civil circumstances, we await our time for the details to disclose themselves and search the justice our shoppers deserve. We additionally anticipate extra victims coming ahead. We knew this was coming. The proof may be very clear and it was solely a matter of time.”

After the lodge video of Combs assaulting Ventura was revealed, Howard College minimize ties with him. In June, the college rescinded an honorary diploma it awarded him and disbanded a scholarship program in his title. The identical month, Combs honored a request from New York Mayor Eric Adams and returned his key to town.

This month, Combs listed his dwelling in Los Angeles that was raided in March for $61.5 million.