Federal authorities are charging Sean “Diddy” Combs with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to the unsealed indictment against him released Tuesday.
The details of Combs’ arrest indictment have been revealed after the music mogul, who was the subject of a sex trafficking investigation and a pair of federal raids, was arrested in Manhattan, New York, on Monday. The producer was taken into custody “based on a sealed indictment” filed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, SDNY announced on social media, noting it would have “more to say” after the indictment was unsealed Tuesday morning.
According to the 14-page indictment filed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Combs turned his “multi-faceted business empire” into a “criminal enterprise” in which he and his associates engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor and other crimes.
Combs threatened and coerced women to “fulfill his sexual desires,” the indictment said.
The district attorney’s office is holding a press conference on the federal indictment at 11:30 a.m. EST.
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, told USA TODAY in a statement Monday that the rapper has been “nothing but cooperative” in the investigation and “voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges.”
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Agnifilo said. “Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal.”
Combs’ arrest follows a spate of legal woes for the Bad Boy Records founder. He is facing multiple lawsuits filed in recent months claiming the music magnate raped or sexually assaulted several alleged victims over the past few decades. Combs has denied all accusations against him.
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