Sean “Diddy” Combs charged with sex trafficking and organized crime

WASHINGTON

Rapper and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs ran a criminal empire “for decades” in which women “and others” were sexually abused, beaten, coerced and threatened, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

Combs “abused, threatened and coerced women and other people around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his behavior,” the 14-page indictment states. It alleges that he “abused women and other people in a consistent pattern of abuse. This abuse was at times verbal, emotional, physical and sexual.”

Prosecutors said Combs formed a “criminal organization” that engaged in numerous sex crimes, including human trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. He is charged with one count each of organized crime, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and trafficking for the purpose of prostitution.

The indictment, approved by a New York City grand jury before his arrest in Manhattan late Monday, alleges that Combs used his empire to lure women into his “orbit” under the guise of a “romantic relationship,” only to then coerce them into sexual performances with sex workers he allegedly referred to as “freak offs.”

They “occurred regularly, sometimes lasted several days and often involved several prostitutes,” the indictment states.

Combs allegedly distributed drugs to the victims to make them “obedient and submissive,” and he and the victims “typically received intravenous fluids to help them recover from the physical exertion and drug use,” the report said.

Combs kept videos of the lurid sex acts, “sometimes without the victims' knowledge,” prosecutors said.

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