Embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been arrested in New York Metropolis on unspecified expenses, federal authorities advised BBC US companion CBS.
He was arrested in Manhattan after two properties in Los Angeles and Miami have been raided in March as a part of authorities’ “ongoing investigation” into intercourse trafficking.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, stated they have been “disillusioned” with the arrest and that his shopper was an “harmless man.”
The musician faces a sequence of accusations starting from sexual assault to abuse, together with from his ex-partner Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura. He has denied all accusations in opposition to him.
A number of legislation enforcement sources advised CBS his arrest is expounded to an ongoing investigation by U.S. homeland safety officers.
Damian Williams, the U.S. Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, confirmed the arrest in an announcement late Monday.
“Earlier tonight, federal brokers arrested Sean Combs on a sealed indictment filed by the New York Metropolis Police Division,” prosecutors stated.
He stated the workplace plans to unseal the indictment Tuesday morning and we “could have extra to say then.”
Combs faces a number of civil lawsuits, together with accusations that he raped an underage lady and tried to “groom” a producer and drive him to have intercourse with one other man.
His lawyer stated Monday evening that Mr. Coombs seemed ahead to “clearing his title in courtroom.”
“We’re disillusioned by the choice to proceed with what we consider is an unfair prosecution,” Agnifilo stated in a written assertion to the BBC.
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving household man and confirmed philanthropist who has spent the previous 30 years constructing an empire, loving his youngsters, and and dealing to uplift the black group.
The rapper’s authorized troubles started in November 2023, when Ms. Ventura filed a lawsuit.
That very same week, two different girls filed lawsuits alleging abuse and battery, together with one who stated Mr. Combs choked her for thus lengthy that she handed out.
He denied all accusations on the time, and a spokesman for the rapper known as the lawsuits a “cash seize.”
Then in December, one other civil lawsuit accused a girl of being “intercourse trafficked” by Mr. Coombs and two different males when she was 17.
In February, new allegations got here to gentle in a civil lawsuit filed by his former producer Rodney Jones Jr., alleging that Mr. Combs made undesirable sexual advances and tried to “groom” him into having intercourse with others. relation.
Mr Coombs denied the accusations, however a month later his property was raided. The musician was stopped at a Miami airport as he ready to journey to the Bahamas and handed the electronics to authorities.
Lots of the lawsuits come shortly earlier than the expiration of New York’s Grownup Survivors Act, which briefly permits those that say they have been sexually abused to file claims even after the statute of limitations has expired.
In Might, CCTV footage launched by CNN appeared to point out the rap mogul attacking and beating Ms Ventura, an incident documented in her civil lawsuit.
Mr. Combs – also called Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love and Brother Love – is among the rap business’s most profitable moguls,