Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested by federal agents in Manhattan on Monday after being indicted by a grand jury on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Allegations of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse have been piling up against Combs since late last year, when Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a civil suit against Combs, her ex-boyfriend. Combs settled the case out of court the day after it was filed, but since then nine more people have come forward with their own allegations of abuse against the rapper.
In the federal indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday, the prosecution argues that Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.” According to the indictment, Combs created a “criminal enterprise,” the members of which “engaged in or attempted to engage in … sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
The indictment itself doesn’t go into too many specifics — those will likely come out during the trial — but there are some disturbing details included by the prosecution.
Diddy allegedly forced his victims to participate in “Freak Offs”
According to the indictment, Combs would use his power to “intimidate, threaten, and lure” female victims into his orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. He would then force them to engage in “Freak Offs” with male sex workers, which are described in the indictment as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.” According to prosecutors, Freak Offs could last days, during which Combs “distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant.” Combs and his victims allegedly received IV fluids after Freak Offs to recover from the physical exertion and drug use.
These details mirror those made by Ventura in the civil complaint she filed against Combs last year. Ventura stated that she was given “ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol in excessive amounts” which allowed her to disassociate while engaging in sex acts with sex workers at Combs’s direction. Eventually, Ventura claimed, she was tasked with facilitating hiring the sex workers and finding the location for Combs’s Freak Offs.
The Feds found a lot of baby oil at Diddy’s homes
In March, Combs’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided. Prosecutors say that federal agents seized “Freak Off supplies” in the process, which included drugs and “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.”
In Ventura’s complaint, she alleged that Combs’s assistants were tasked with stocking hotel rooms with “baby oil and Astroglide” before Freak Offs. She claimed that during Freak Offs, Combs would instruct her “to pour excessive amounts of oil over herself.”
Physical abuse was rampant
Throughout the indictment, the prosecution claims that Combs was regularly physically abusive toward his victims. They claim that Combs assaulted women by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.” They also claim that he “hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair.”
Earlier this year, security footage of Combs physically assaulting Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel was released by CNN. In the footage, you can see him throwing a vase at her, kicking her, and dragging her down the hallway. In her lawsuit, Ventura had described a similar event.
Prosecutors also allege that firearms were used to threaten Combs’s victims. The indictment claims that not only did Combs’s security personnel occasionally carry firearms, but that Combs himself “carried or brandished firearms to intimidate and threaten others” on more than one occasion. When Combs’s homes were raided, federal officers seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.
Prosecutors believe Diddy’s employees were a huge part of the operation
In addition to helping to facilitate Freak Offs — which included hiring and booking travel for sex workers, arranging hotel rooms, and procuring supplies — Combs’s employees, the indictment claims, were a crucial aspect in maintaining control over his victims. Prosecutors allege that Combs’s employees would witness his violence toward his victims and not intervene. Rather, they would help conceal the violence and abuse by preventing victims from leaving the site at which they had been assaulted. “These occasions included instances in which a victim was required to remain in hiding — sometimes for several days at a time — to recover from injuries Combs inflicted, without being publicly observed,” the indictment claims. Combs’s employees also allegedly assisted him in “locating and contacting” victims who had attempted to escape his abuse.
Following Ventura’s lawsuit against Combs in late 2023, Combs and his associates allegedly “pressured witnesses and victims, including through attempted bribery, to stay silent and not report what they experienced or knew to law enforcement.”
When employees “threatened Combs’s authority or reputation,” Combs and his other associates would allegedly retaliate. According to the indictment, they engaged in “acts of violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm, and verbal abuse.”