Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday in New York amid a federal sex-trafficking probe, officials said.
No details were immediately available about the charges against the hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur. A grand jury had been impaneled to investigate allegations.
Late Monday, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York issued a brief statement saying Combs was arrested “based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”
Sources said Combs was arrested without incident at around 8:30 p.m. at a New York hotel, where he had been staying.
Law enforcement sources told The Times earlier this year that Combs was the subject of a sweeping inquiry into sex-trafficking allegations that resulted in a federal raid in March at his estates in Los Angeles and Miami.
In civil lawsuits, four women have accused Combs of rape, assault and other abuses, dating back three decades. One of the allegations involved a minor. The claims sent shock waves through the music industry and put Combs’ entertainment empire in jeopardy.
Combs has strongly denied any wrongdoing, and on Monday his attorney criticized prosecutors.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community.”
The attorney said Combs was “an imperfect person but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted searches on March 25 at mansions owned by the Bad Boy Entertainment co-founder as part of the federal inquiry into sex-trafficking allegations, law enforcement sources said.
The 17,000-square-foot mansion in Holmby Hills where Combs debuted his LP “The Love Album: Off the Grid” was flooded with agents, who served a search warrant and gathered evidence on behalf of an investigation being run by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the inquiry.
Combs’ legal troubles have been building for months.
Last week, Dawn Richard, the former Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money member and solo artist, sued Combs in New York, alleging sexual assault, harassment and inhumane treatment.
She alleged in the complaint that Combs groped her without her consent, falsely imprisoned her and deprived her and her bandmates of basic needs, and that “submission to his depraved demands was necessary for career advancement.”
Richard’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, said in a statement to The Times that “given Sean Combs’ brutal beating of his girlfriend caught on video and the eight people who have now accused him of abuse in court filings, including my brave client Dawn Richard, this arrest seems long overdue. It’s a big, moving day for victims, but an arrest is only the beginning. May justice be delivered to Mr. Combs. We implore other accusers to come forward in solidarity and join us in this fight.”
His former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, accused him of rape and repeated physical assaults and said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him. Combs quickly settled a lawsuit Ventura brought against him last year. Months later, a 2016 video published by CNN showed Combs chasing, kicking and dragging Ventura at an L.A. hotel.
Another accuser, Joi Dickerson-Neal, said in a lawsuit that Combs drugged and raped her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent.
Liza Gardner filed a third suit in which she alleged Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall sexually assaulted her. Hall could not be reached for comment.
Another lawsuit alleges that Combs and former Bad Boy label President Harve Pierre gang-raped and sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl. Pierre said in a statement that the allegations were “disgusting,” “false” and a “desperate attempt for financial gain.”
After the filing of the fourth suit, Combs wrote on Instagram: “Enough is enough…. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
In the spring, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a federal lawsuit against Combs accusing him of sexually harassing and threatening him for more than a year.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.