The list of famous people who appear in the sexual-assault lawsuits against Sean 'Diddy' Combs
- Sean Combs was arrested in September on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
- The federal indictment has come after Diddy was hit with a series of lawsuits.
- Some suits include allegations against other known figures — but not all are listed as defendants.
The lawsuits against Sean Combs, more commonly known as Diddy, continue to pile up.
On Monday, Combs was hit with a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old at one of his famous white parties. The complaint was one of six new lawsuits — the others allege rape and sexual assault — to hit the hip-hop mogul in October and is part of a wave of 120 civil lawsuits expected to be filed against him in the near future.
Combs and his lawyers have denied all the allegations against him, calling the six lawsuits filed this month an attempt to "garner publicity."
"Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process," the lawyers said. "In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman."
Combs and his businesses were already facing a dozen civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and sex trafficking. The complaints, the first of which was filed by his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, provide detailed allegations of rape, abuse, and drugging.
In September, Combs was criminally charged in federal court with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The indictment came after a monthslong investigation — including raids on Combs' Los Angeles and Miami homes.
"We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the US Attorney's Office," Marc Agnifilo, Combs' lawyer, said in a statement to Business Insider following the federal charges. "These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court."
While the federal indictment lists only Combs as a defendant, it refers to some of his employees and associates as members of the criminal enterprise he led.
The series of civil suits that have hit him over the past year identified several powerful and wealthy people in Combs' orbit. Some are outright accused by plaintiffs of wrongdoing — whether that be witnessing the abuse and not stopping it or providing drugs to Combs. Others — such as Prince Harry, Nicki Minaj, or Usher — are simply mentioned in passing and not accused of any wrongdoing.
For decades, the hip-hop mogul has been surrounded by accusations of violence — sometimes involving other very famous names.
Here are the well-known people linked to the accusations against Combs.
Aaron Hall, an R&B singer who was part of the group Guy, was named as a defendant in a complaint filed against Combs last November in the New York Supreme Court ahead of the expiration date for New York's Adult Survivors Act, which provided a one-year window in which people could bring cases of sexual assault outside the typical statute of limitations.
The plaintiff, named Liza Gardner, accuses Combs and Hall of sexually assaulting her and a friend in Hall's apartment after a music-industry event hosted by MCA Records in 1990 when she was 16 years old. She says that Combs "coerced" her into having sex with him and that afterward, "Hall barged into the room, pinned her down, and forced" her to have sex with him too.
The plaintiff also alleges that Combs found her at her home and choked her until she passed out; he was worried his girlfriend would find out about the incident, the complaint says.
In one YouTube video cited in the complaint, Hall says in an interview that "Puffy" — what Combs was known as in the 1990s — had seen him have sex.
Hall couldn't be reached for comment. His lawyer wasn't yet identified in court documents as of April 8.
The music producer Harve Pierre was named as a defendant in two lawsuits filed against Combs ahead of the Adult Survivors Act's expiration date. Both lawsuits were filed anonymously, one in the New York Supreme Court and the other in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, with the plaintiff listed as Jane Doe on both documents. He was also listed as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Dawn Richard.
Pierre was Combs' first employee at Bad Boy Records and the president of his Bad Boy Entertainment, and he worked with artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans.
In the first complaint, filed in November 2023, a former employee of Bad Boy who worked as Pierre's assistant accuses Pierre of using his position of power "to groom, exploit, and sexually assault her." The complaint says Combs and his companies enabled the abuse.
In a second lawsuit filed in December 2023, the plaintiff alleges that when she was 17 in 2003, Combs, Pierre, and an unnamed third defendant gang raped and sex trafficked her. Specifically, she alleges that Pierre smoked crack cocaine and then forced her to give him oral sex before bringing her from Detroit to New York City on a private jet.
The complaint alleges that in New York, at a studio owned by Combs, the defendants provided the plaintiff with drugs and alcohol before raping her.
Pierre's lawyer didn't respond to a request for comment from BI. He has denied the accusations made in the second complaint.
"This is a tale of fiction. I have never participated in, witnessed, nor heard of anything like this, ever. These disgusting allegations are false and a desperate attempt for financial gain," he said in a statement obtained by TMZ.
An amended complaint filed in March in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York by Rodney Jones Jr. — a music producer who goes by Lil Rod — lists Cuba Gooding Jr. as a defendant. Jones accuses Gooding of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Specifically, Jones accuses Combs of grooming him to "pass him off" to Gooding. The complaint says the two were left alone in a makeshift studio on a yacht rented by Combs.
There, Gooding began "touching, groping, and fondling Mr. Jones' legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks, and his shoulders," the complaint alleges.
The actor previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of forcible touching.
Gooding's attorney didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
While not necessarily a celebrity in his own right, Justin Dior Combs — Combs' 30-year-old son — is a defendant in Jones' amended complaint in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York.
In a wide-ranging list of allegations, Jones accuses Justin Combs of soliciting sex workers and underaged girls, as well as engaging in "freak-offs."
He also says the younger and older Combs were the only other people present in the room when "G," a friend of his, was shot at a recording studio — implying one of them shot G.
Justin Combs was at Combs' Los Angeles home when it was raided by feds and was seen handcuffed on the lawn outside, though he wasn't arrested.
Justin Combs' lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said on his radio show, "Beyond the Legal Limit," that the complaint was "utterly bonkers."
"It's clearly written in an effort to get as much publicity as possible, not only for the case but for the lawyer whose name I don't even remember, literally some maniac," he said.
Lichtman didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Jacob Arabo, better known as Jacob the Jeweler, is named as a defendant in a complaint filed against Combs by Adria English in July.
In the lawsuit, English accuses Combs of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking. The complaint alleges that she worked at Combs' famous white parties as a go-go dancer for years and that, at at least one of the parties, he forced her to have sex with Arabo, one of the party guests.
"Plaintiff, fearing not only her safety, but her and her then-boyfriend's job security, did as instruct and went with Defendant Jacob where she engaged in forced sexual intercourse with Defendant Jacob at the demand and behest of Defendant Combs. Plaintiff knew refusing Defendant Combs demands was not an option," the complaint says.
The complaint also says English saw Arabo "solicit and ingest narcotics." In a photograph included in the complaint, English and Arabo are together.
Arabo has been a character on the hip-hop scene for decades, with early clients including Notorious B.I.G. and Combs. Jay-Z raps about him in Beyoncé's "Upgrade U," as does Kanye West in Rick Ross' "Live Fast, Die Young."
"I really wanted to make statement pieces," he told BI in 2016 about the flashy pieces that became his signature.
"They would stand there waiting for me to be available to see them to show them jewelry. A line of people waiting," he added of his A-list clientele. "Before you know, you have Michael Jackson as a client, you have David Beckham, you have Madonna, you have all these celebrities."
The complaint against him is not Arabo's first run-in with the law. In 2006, he was arrested on money-laundering charges. As part of a plea deal, he was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison for falsifying records and making false statements, CBS reported.
Arabo didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Yung Miami, a member of City Girls, is mentioned in Jones' amended complaint, filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York. She isn't a defendant, nor is she accused of sexual misconduct.
She's listed as being a part of Combs' sex-trafficking operation and accused of bringing Combs tuci, a drug sometimes called "pink cocaine," on a private jet.
The complaint says she was retained on a monthly stipend as one of Combs' sex workers. It also alleges that her cousin, named as Jane Doe 1, assaulted Jones, forcibly giving him oral sex without consent.
A representative for Yung Miami didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.
Jones alleges in his amended complaint filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York that the Grammy winner Stevie J, Combs' longtime collaborator, recruited sex workers and participated in Combs' "freak-offs," though he doesn't name Stevie J as a defendant.
Jones accuses Combs of instructing Stevie J to teach him "the type of sex workers to solicit, and way to solicit them."
Jones also accuses Stevie J of sending threatening messages when Jones publicly asked Combs to pay him for his work on Combs' "The Love Album."
The complaint also says Combs used his connection to Stevie J — Jones' "idol" — to pressure Jones into sex.
"I've never seen my man doing anything foul like they talking about," Stevie J told TMZ earlier this month, adding: '"I've never seen it. I've known him for 29 years."
His attorney didn't reply to a request for comment from BI.
Kalenna Harper was a member of the group Diddy — Dirty Money, along with Dawn Richard and Combs.
In Richard's complaint, she says she and Harper were at Combs' home, where they witnessed him yell at and choke Ventura before throwing a "scalding hot pan of eggs" at her and dragging her up the stairs.
Richard's complaint says that Harper led her out of the house but that the two of them later spoke to Ventura and encouraged her to leave the relationship. Combs responded by threatening them, the complaint says.
The complaint also says that Combs forced Richard and Harper to work for days on end without breaks to sleep or eat and that the two weren't properly compensated for appearances.
In response to the lawsuit, Harper posted on Instagram.
"While I fully respect Dawn's right to recount her experiences, l want to emphasize that her account reflects her personal perspective and should not be interpreted as a universal truth applicable to everyone involved," she wrote in an Instagram story, according to People.
"It's important to understand that while I was present in some of the same professional settings mentioned, many of the allegations and incidents described in this suit are not representative of my experiences, and some do not align with my own truth."
Harper was also mentioned by federal prosecutors during Tuesday's bond hearing, during which prosecutors argued that Combs shouldn't be released ahead of trial.
The prosecutor, discussing Combs' contact with witnesses, said that between September 10, the day Richard filed the lawsuit, and September 14, the day Harper made her statement on Instagram, Combs called or texted Harper 58 times.
Richard's complaint also includes mention of Jimmy Iovine, the cofounder of Interscope Records and Beats Electronics.
The complaint recounts a dinner party held by Combs in the months leading up to a deal between his Bad Boy Entertainment and Iovine's Interscope Geffen A&M Records.
The complaint says that at the dinner, in front of Iovine, as well as the dinner guests Ne-Yo and Usher, Ventura and Combs had an argument that resulted in Combs punching her in the stomach, "causing her to double over in visible pain, crying."
"Even after Mr. Iovine watched Mr. Combs commit a violent assault in front of numerous high-profile witnesses, the Bad Boy-Interscope deal took place and remained in effect, providing Mr. Combs with immense financial rewards and enabling him to commit further acts of violence without fear of repercussions," the complaint says.
Usher, Ne-Yo, and Iovine didn't reply to a request for comment from BI about the allegations in Richard's complaint.
The CEO of Universal Music Group and father-in-law to Sofia Richie, Lucian Grainge, was originally listed as a defendant in Jones' amended complaint filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, along with Universal Music Group and its label Motown Records. He has since been removed.
He was initially accused of aiding and abetting Combs, specifically in racketeering and sex trafficking. Universal's Motown Records had a licensing agreement with Combs' Love Records.
The complaint says that as CEO, Grainge "had a duty to ensure that the financial support they provided to Sean Combs and Love Records was not being used for sex workers, drugs, and laced alcohol."
Attorneys for Grainge filed a motion to dismiss, in which they called the accusations "offensively false." In a sworn statement to the court, Grainge called the accusations "completely untrue and absurd" and said he planned to "pursue both plaintiffs and his counsel for having made such false accusations."
Grainge also noted that he's the CEO of a "multi-national public company" — and said he wasn't involved in the "day-to-day operations" of the company's "thousands of agreements."
In a statement to BI when the lawsuit was first filed, Grainge's attorney Donald S. Zakarin called the complaint "offensively reckless" and said they would seek legal repercussions against Jones' attorney.
"The plaintiff has now attempted to amend his claims against Sir Lucian, removing the original set of outrageous falsehoods related to Sir Lucian, replacing them with wholly contradictory new falsehoods that are equally absurd," he said. "Not only will we demonstrate the offensive falsity of these claims, but we will seek recovery of every penny of cost and damage caused by their assertion."
In May, Jones' attorney dropped the claims against Grainge, Motown Records, and Universal Music Group with prejudice — which means they cannot be refiled at a later date.
"Based on my examination of all of the papers submitted in support of both motions to dismiss, which addressed the issues I had, I have concluded that there is no legal basis for the claims and allegations that were made against the UMG Defendants," Jones' attorney wrote.
October 16, 2024: This story has been updated with new details from a lawsuit.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673) or visit its website to receive confidential support.