Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail in sex-trafficking and racketeering case

Sean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail and ordered to jail on Tuesday as he faces charges of sex trafficking and racketeering that were included in a federal indictment unsealed on the same day, alleging that he also engaged in kidnapping, forced labor, bribery and other crimes.

Combs, 54, appeared in court in New York and pleaded not guilty, after he was arrested in connection with the charges late on Monday in Manhattan. His apprehension came roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex-trafficking investigation raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

Federal judge Robyn Tarnofsky heard lengthy arguments from prosecutors and Combs’s lawyers and decided the defendant should remain in federal detention.

Combs took a long sip of water from a bottle after bail was denied and was led out of court without being handcuffed, as he looked towards relatives in the public gallery.

“Mr Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent,” his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after court, pledging to appeal the bail decision.

The three-count, 14-page indictment alleges racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The document contains remarkably graphic details, including that Combs would force sex-trafficking victims to engage in group sex acts with associates of his that he referred to as “freak offs” – sometimes for days at a time – while he recorded video of the encounters and masturbated to them. The encounters were so physically exhausting for him and his victims – whom he would force to ingest drugs – that all “typically received IV fluids to recover”, the indictment said.

“For decades, SEAN COMBS, a/k/a ‘Puff Daddy,’ a/k/a ‘P Diddy,’ a/k/a ‘Diddy,’ a/k/a ‘PD,’ a/k/a ‘Love,’ the defendant, abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,” the indictment reads.

Combs’s alleged criminal conspiracy, the indictment says, “relied on employees, resources, and influence of the multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled – creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice”.

It is unclear whether the arson allegation may refer to singer Casandra Ventura’s lawsuit – in which she stated that Combs purportedly threatened to blow up the rapper Kid Cudi’s car in 2012 after the latter man briefly dated her.

Cudi’s car allegedly exploded in the driveway of his residence. A statement that he provided to the New York Times later said the allegations in Ventura’s lawsuit were “all true”.

The indictment said Combs tasked his employees with providing everything from lubricant to drugs for the alleged “freak offs”.

“Freak Offs occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers,” the complaint says. Combs would direct the sex acts at the center of the freaks offs while he also “distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant”.

His supervisors, security, hotel staff and assistants would allegedly stock up on drugs and lubricant, procure baby oil, extra linens and specialized lighting, and book hotel rooms and travel arrangements.

When investigators raided Combs’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March, they seized drugs, more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant and three AR-15 rifles.

Contained in the complaint are apparent references to Ventura, Combs’s former girlfriend who made allegations of sexual abuse last year that Combs quickly settled out of court. He was recorded beating her in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, video of which surfaced only earlier this year.

The indictment suggests Combs “attempted to bribe [a hotel] staff member to ensure silence” after that assault, which the indictment describes without naming Ventura.

The government adds that – from at least 2009 – Combs “assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them”.

Combs appeared in Manhattan federal court wearing a black T-shirt and gray sweatpants and looked toward his sons in the public gallery.

His lawyers tried unsuccessfully to keep him out of jail, requesting his release to home detention and travel restrictions as well as a $50m bond secured on the basis of his home in Miami. They said in a motion that Combs would turn over his passport and that he was attempting to sell his private jet. They said that “conditions at Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn are not fit for pre-trial detention”.

Prosecutors said Combs repeatedly engaged in violence towards his employees and others – and that Combs’s allies set fire to a vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside.

They argued that Combs was “a serious flight risk” and that his net worth was close to $1bn, including more than $1m in personal cash on hand as of last December.

Combs “has the money, manpower and tools” to flee without detection, they wrote, adding Combs’s “disposition to violence cannot be reasonably prevented through bail conditions”.

Prosecutor Damian Williams, the US attorney, said: “Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and the obstruction of justice.”

Since last year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse and has denied many of those allegations.

Combs has become a hip-hop industry pariah.

The flood of allegations against him began in November, when Ventura filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her and others into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.

Combs settled the suit in a single day.

Nonetheless, the settlement did not prevent CNN from airing hotel security footage in May that showed Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her on a floor eight years earlier.

After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying: “I was disgusted when I did it.” His apology contradicted years of denials that he was abusive.

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie, said in a statement on Tuesday: “Neither Ms Ventura nor I have any comment.”

Combs and his attorneys, however, denied similar allegations made by others in a series of pending lawsuits: a woman has alleged Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17; a music producer alleged Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes; and another woman, April Lampros, alleged Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters” starting when she was a college student in 1994.

More recently, the singer Dawn Richard – who formed part of the Combs-founded girl group Danity Kane – filed a lawsuit alleging sexual assault and inhumane treatment. And Combs’s legal team has also moved to overturn a $100m judgment awarded by default to an incarcerated man in Michigan after the plaintiff’s allegations were not contested in court by the music mogul.