Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of threatening and bodily abusing his staff in a 2nd superseding indictment that used to be returned on Thursday as a part of the embattled tycoon’s intercourse trafficking and racketeering legal case.
The brand new 15-page indictment, acquired via Rolling Stone, didn’t identify any new co-defendants however as a substitute specializes in Combs’ alleged abusive remedy and compelled hard work of staff who labored throughout Combs’ more than one companies. The 55-year-old is accused of keeping up keep watch over over sure staff’ lives via main them to “consider they might be harmed — together with via dropping their jobs — if they didn’t comply together with his calls for,” in keeping with Southern District of New York prosecutors.
“With appreciate to 1 worker, Combs used bodily power, physiological hurt, monetary hurt, reputational hurt and/or threats of the similar to motive the worker to have interaction in intercourse acts with Combs,” the indictment alleges.
Combs stays charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to have interaction in prostitution following his September arrest. The 55-year-old pleaded now not in charge to the costs. He’s recently anticipating his Would possibly trial on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn. If convicted, he faces 15 years to lifestyles in jail.
According to the brand new indictment, Combs’ lead protection legal professional Marc Agnifilo mentioned there have been various former staff who would vouch for his or her boss. “Mr. Combs has mentioned it earlier than and can say it once more: he vehemently denies the accusations made via the SDNY,” Agnifilo mentioned in a remark equipped to Rolling Stone. “Many former staff stand via his aspect, ready to attest to the willpower, arduous paintings, and inspiration they skilled whilst serving to construct groundbreaking, award-winning companies.”
“He seems ahead to his day in court docket when it’ll transform transparent that he hasn’t ever pressured any individual to have interaction in sexual acts in opposition to their will,” Agnifilo added.
Prosecutors have accused Combs of the use of his billion-dollar empire as a “legal undertaking” to dedicate a spread of offenses, in keeping with the indictment, together with “intercourse trafficking, pressured hard work, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice” from 2004 to 2024. Portray an image of a deadly and abusive guy, prosecutors declare Combs pressured romantic companions to put up to his will and sexual fantasies via manipulation, coercion, threats and violence, together with as soon as making an attempt to beat down a girl’s door with a hammer.
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The brand new indictment accuses Combs of weaponizing his corporate and a group of dependable staffers to hold out his calls for, which he allegedly did so via keeping up keep watch over over sure staff, “whom he pressured to paintings lengthy hours with little sleep, via use of, amongst different issues, bodily power, mental hurt, monetary hurt and reputational hurt, and/or threats of the similar.”
In January, prosecutors within the Southern District of New York launched the primary superseding indictment in opposition to Combs, which added two extra alleged feminine sufferers whom Combs is accused of forcing into business intercourse acts with male intercourse staff.
The unique 14-page indictment from September looked as if it would intently apply the accusations that R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura leveled in opposition to Combs in her explosive sexual abuse lawsuit from November 2023. Ventura alleged that all through her decade-long courting along with her Dangerous Boy label boss, she used to be bodily overwhelmed and compelled to eat narcotics whilst having intercourse with male intercourse staff. Combs denied her allegations and the lawsuit used to be settled inside 24 hours.
As Combs prepares for trial, his protection legal professionals have claimed that he’s coming to court docket a modified guy. They mentioned he’d sought skilled lend a hand and long past to rehab years prior to deal with his substance-use problems. Then again, a Rolling Stone investigation from January discovered Combs used to be nonetheless unstable, nonetheless taking changing components, and used to be nonetheless allegedly sexually abusive. Combs’ former government assistant, Phil Pines, detailed how he used to be pressured to paintings repeatedly, which deteriorated his psychological well being. Greater than a dozen other folks have claimed that Combs bodily attacked, drugged, and/or sexually assaulted them between 2016 and 2024.
