Topline
Federal agents searched rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes in Florida and California on Monday stemming from a federal sex trafficking investigation, multiple news outlets reported, as the rapper and producer faces mounting legal trouble over allegations of rape, trafficking and sexual abuse—though Combs has not been criminally charged.
Key Facts
Federal Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted the raids on Monday with assistance from agents in Miami and Los Angeles, as well as local law enforcement, HSI told Forbes in a statement.
Local news footage in Miami and Los Angeles appeared to spot federal agents walking through Combs’ Florida and southern California homes Monday afternoon.
Those searches were part of an “ongoing investigation,” according to the HSI, which did not provide further details on the raids or the investigation itself.
The raid in California reportedly took place in the affluent Holmby Hills neighborhood, where Combs, previously known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, purchased a home for $40 million in 2014.
Forbes has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, the Homeland Security Investigations agency and the FBI’s Los Angeles field office for confirmation, as well as Combs’ representatives with his company Combs Global and his attorney, Benjamin Brafman.
What To Watch For
The searches are related to a federal investigation for sex trafficking and other allegations, the Associated Press and NBC News reported, citing unnamed sources. The rapper has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of a crime, and the AP said it’s unclear if Combs was a target of the probe. The agents involved in Monday’s searches served a search warrant stemming from a federal investigation in New York’s Southern District, unnamed officials told the Los Angeles Times. The District Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York declined to comment to Forbes.
Key Background
Combs has faced at least four civil lawsuits for sexual misconduct or trafficking in a matter of months. He was accused of rape, sexual assault and trafficking in a December lawsuit filed in federal in New York by an anonymous plaintiff listed as Jane Doe. Combs denied the allegations, telling Forbes at the time he “did not do any of the awful things being alleged.” That suit, which lists his music company, Bad Boy Entertainment, and former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre as co-defendants, accuses Combs, Pierre and an unnamed third assailant of having “gang raped” the plaintiff in 2003, when she was 17 years old, and taking her on a jet from Detroit to New York City. Separately, the three-time Grammy Award winner was accused of sexual assault, trafficking and rape in a $30 million suit filed by singer Casandra Ventura—that suit was settled for an undisclosed sum. The rapper was listed in a suit by plaintiff Joi Dickerson-Neal, who claimed Combs drugged her before sexually assaulting her in 1991. Combs denied those allegations, as well as others listed in a fourth suit filed by an anonymous plaintiff, alleging Combs and singer Aaron Hall raped them in the 1990s.