Sean “Diddy” Combs offered bail of $50 million. Prosecutors urged the judge to reject the offer.

• Prosecutors want Sean “Diddy” Combs to remain in custody until his criminal trial.

• They say his enormous wealth and network could help him escape if he wanted to.

• Prosecutors say he has tried to bribe security forces and influence witnesses in the past.

Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to keep Sean “Diddy” Combs behind bars pending his criminal trial because he may try to flee the country or interfere with the investigation into sex trafficking charges against him.

In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Combs with sex trafficking, organized crime conspiracy and illegal transportation of prostitutes. They allege he manipulated and pressured victims to participate in “freak offs” – elaborate “sex performances” during which Combs masturbated and recorded them.

Before Combs' expected court date this afternoon, his lawyers offered him a $50 million bail to keep him out of jail before trial, offered to release passports to him and his family members and said he planned to sell his private jet to show he was not a flight risk.

Prosecutors asked in a letter to the court that Combs should remain incarcerated, arguing that he used his “vast wealth” to “engage in manipulative and obstructive behavior to ensure that his criminal conduct goes unpunished.”

In addition to being known as a rapper and record producer, Combs is also a serial entrepreneur who has founded fashion and media companies and served as a brand ambassador for Cîroc Vodka. Prosecutors estimated his net worth at about $1 billion and said he has a private jet and $1 million in cash to be able to leave the country if he wanted to.

“In short, if the defendant wanted to escape, he had the money, manpower and resources to do so quickly and undetected,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Prosecutors also said that Combs could commit witness tampering if released. According to their letter, Combs and his associates contacted witnesses as part of the investigation and tried to get them to change their statements.

“In late 2023, immediately following public allegations of certain of the defendant's crimes, including his physical and sexual abuse of women, the defendant and other members of the Enterprise repeatedly made telephone conversations with victims and witnesses in which they provided victims and witnesses with false accounts of events, apparently in an effort to cover up the defendant's crimes,” prosecutors wrote.

The majority of the bail offered by Combs' lawyers would be secured by his Miami home, which they said is worth $48 million.

“Sean Combs has never dodged, avoided, evaded or run from a challenge in his life,” his lawyers wrote in their letter. “He will not start now.”

If a judge were to allow Combs to be released on bail, he would likely be subject to some form of surveillance by security forces.

But in the past, Combs had pressured security personnel to keep quiet about his activities, prosecutors wrote.

After a March 2016 incident in which Combs was “captured on surveillance video hitting, kicking and dragging a woman in the public area of ​​a hotel” – an apparent reference to R&B singer Cassie Ventura – Combs attempted to bribe hotel security, prosecutors said.

“When a member of the hotel's security staff intervened, the defendant attempted to offer the hotel's security guard a wad of cash to compel his silence,” prosecutors wrote. “After the security guard refused the defendant's bribe, and after a coordination between the defendant and his associates, the defendant's associates contacted other members of the hotel's security staff.”

Prosecutors said the abuse against Combs continued despite criminal investigations.

“The defendant continued to physically attack and threaten those around him, including his significant other, his co-workers, and others who happened to be present when he succumbed to his fits of rage,” prosecutors wrote. “No bail conditions can accommodate the defendant's tendency to become violent when angry or emotional: anyone in his presence is at risk of abuse or attack.”

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