Dec. 24 (UPI) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorney filed an expedited federal appeal in seeking his immediate appeal from federal prison on the hip-hop mogul’s two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
The appeal was filed Tuesday with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, seeking an acquittal or vacating his conviction and remand for resentencing.
In the 84-page appeal, attorney Alexandra A.E. Shapiro argued U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian “acted as the 13th juror” and found that Combs “coerced,” “exploited” and “forced” his girlfriends to have sex and led a criminal conspiracy, which “trumped the verdict.
The speedy appeal process was granted last month. The federal governor’s brief is due by Feb. 20 and Comb’s reply is due by March 13.
Combs, 56, is serving a 50-month prison sentence. He is now in a low-security prison in Fort Dix, N.J. He was moved there after being detained in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., since his arrest on Sept. 16, 2024.
On July 2, a jury in Manhattan convicted Combs after two days of deliberations and a six-week trial. He was found not guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
Later that day, Subramanian denied his bail request because he said it would be impossible for him to prove he does not pose a danger.
The defense proposed travel restrictions, regular drug testing and a $1 million bond co-signed by himself, his mother, his sister and the mother of his oldest daughter.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey also opposed the request.
“There is serious, serious conduct here that will mandate a lengthy period of incarceration,” Comey said.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” the judge said. “These letters, all those letters that I saw, show that you have a universe of people who love you. Let them lift you up now, just like you’ve lifted them up for so many years.”
His expected release date is May 25, 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Shapiro wrote prosecutors failed to provide their case and noted girlfriends and third parties were adults who “willingly and enthusiastically” participated in so-called freak-offs, which are days-long, drug-fueled sexual encounters.
And the sentence was illegal because it was “draconian.”
She said the enhanced sentence violates his constitutional rights.
Shapiro also noted her client had already served 16 months of his sentence, which is the average one for what he was convicted of.
“If the court does not overturn Combs’ conviction, it should release him immediately and instruct the district court to resentence him only for the conduct of which he was convicted,” the filing reads.
This case isn’t Combs’ only legal situation with more than 70 civil lawsuits filed. In October, Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee announced he would represent 120 accusers.
The alleged victims include children, teens and adults. There are short-term and long-term romantic partners.
He has denied all of the allegations and claimed that security footage in which Combs is seen beating ex-R&B star Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fin was altered. His ex-girlfriend testified during the trial.
During sentencing, he addressed the court after he submitted a four-page letter to the judge that included an apology to the victims.
Combs apologized to Fin and another ex-girlfriend, identified as “Jane.”
“I want to personally apologize again to Cassie Ventura for any harm or hurt that I caused to her, emotionally or physically. My actions were disgusting, shameful and sick,” Combs said.
Kendrick Lamar headlines the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on February 9, 2025. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Rosenberg is still trying to understand why President Trump would free the man who defrauded him out of a quarter of a million dollars.
Rosenberg, a retired wholesale produce distributor living in Nevada, has supported Trump since he entered politics, but the president’s decision in November to commute the sentence of former private equity executive David Gentile has left him angry and confused.
“I just feel I’ve been betrayed,” Rosenberg, 68, said. “I don’t know why he would do this, unless there was some sort of gain somewhere, or some favor being called in. I am very disappointed. I kind of put him above this kind of thing.”
Trump’s decision to release Gentile from prison less than two weeks into his seven-year sentence has drawn scrutiny from securities attorneys and a U.S. senator — all of whom say the White House’s explanation for the act of clemency is not adding up. It’s also drawn the ire of his victims.
“I think it is disgusting,” said CarolAnn Tutera, 70, who invested more than $400,000 with Gentile’s company, GPB Capital. Gentile, she added, “basically pulled a Bernie Madoff and swindled people out of their money, and then he gets to go home to his wife and kids.”
Gentile and his business partner, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted of securities and wire fraud in August 2024 for carrying out what federal prosecutors described as a $1.6-billion Ponzi scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors. After an eight-week trial, it took a jury five hours to return a guilty verdict.
More than 1,000 people attested to their losses after investing with GPB, according to federal prosecutors who described the victims as “hardworking, everyday people.”
When Gentile and Schneider were sentenced in May, Joseph Nocella Jr., the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, and Christopher Raia, a senior official in the Justice Department, called their punishment “well deserved” and a warning to would-be fraudsters.
“May today’s sentencing deter anyone who seeks to greedily profit off their clients through deceitful practices,” Raia said in a statement.
Then, on Nov. 26 — just 12 days after Gentile reported to prison — Trump commuted his sentence with “no further fines, restitution, probation, or other conditions,” according to a grant of clemency signed by Trump. Under those terms, Gentile may not have to pay $15 million that federal prosecutors are seeking in forfeiture.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters this month that prosecutors had failed to tie “supposedly fraudulent” representations to Gentile and that his conviction was a “weaponization of justice” led by the Biden administration — even though the sentences and convictions were lauded by Trump’s own appointees.
The White House declined to say who advised Trump in the decision or whether Trump was considering granting clemency to Schneider, Gentile’s co-defendant. Attorneys for Gentile and Schneider did not respond to a request seeking comment.
Adam Gana, a securities attorney whose firm has represented more than 250 GPB investors, called the White House’s explanation “a word salad of nonsense,” and questioned why Trump granted Gentile a commutation, which lessens a sentence, rather than a pardon, which forgives the offense itself.
“If the government wasn’t able to prove their case, why not pardon David Gentile? And why is his partner still in prison?” Gana said. “It’s left us with more questions than answers.”
‘It hurts a lot’
To Rosenberg, Tutera and two other investors interviewed by The Times, the president’s decision stripped away any sense of closure they felt after Gentile and Schneider were convicted.
Rosenberg has tried not to dwell on the $250,000 he lost in 2016, after a broker “painted a beautiful picture” of steady returns and long-term profits. The investments were supposed to generate income for him during retirement.
“A quarter of a million dollars, it hurts a lot,” Rosenberg said. “It changed a lot of things I do. Little trips that I wanted to take with my grandkids — well, they’re not quite as nice as they were planned on being.”
Jeffrey Rosenberg, a longtime Trump supporter, said he felt “betrayed” after the president granted clemency to convicted fraudster David Gentile.
(Scott Sady / For The Times)
Tutera, who runs a hormone replacement therapy office in Arizona, invested more than $400,000 with GPB at the recommendation of a financial advisor. She hoped the returns would help support her retirement after her husband had died.
“I was on grief brain at the time and just feel I was taken advantage of and really sold a bill of goods,” said Tutera, 70. Now, she says: “I have to keep working to make up for what I was owed.” She has been able to recover only about $40,000.
Tutera said her sister, Julie Ullman, and their 97-year-old mother also fell victim to the scheme. Their mother lost more than $100,000 and now finds herself spending down savings she had planned to leave to her children and not trusting people, she said.
“That’s really sad,” Tutera said. “People, unfortunately, have turned into thieves, liars and cheaters, and I don’t know what’s happened to the world, but we’ve lost our way to be kind.”
Ullman, 58, who manages a medical practice in Arizona, said the financial loss was life-changing.
“I’m going to have to work longer than I thought I would because that was my retirement fund,” Ullman said.
Mei, a 71-year-old licensed acupuncturist who asked to not use her full name out of embarrassment, said a broker introduced her to the GPB investment funds at a lunch meeting targeting divorced women. She eventually invested $500,000 and lost all of it. It was only through lawsuits that she was able to recover roughly $214,000 of her money, she said.
Mei had planned to retire in New York to be close to her children. But the loss of income has forced her to live in China, where the cost of living is much lower, six months out of the year, she said.
Mei fears Trump’s decision to commute Gentile’s sentence will allow these schemes to continue.
“Donald Trump is promoting more white-collar financial criminals, for sure,” Mei said. “How unfair.”
Bob Van De Veire, a securities attorney who has represented more than 100 GPB investors, said he has mostly handled negligence cases against the brokers who touted GPB investments.
“Based on all the red flags that were present, they should have never sold these investments at all,” Van De Veire said.
Gana, the securities attorney, added that he will continue to fight for victims in civil court, noting the clemency only addressed the criminal conviction.
The commutation caught the eye of Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who sent a letter to the White House last week asking several questions: Why, for example, did Gentile receive clemency while Schneider did not? And what were the trial errors cited as a reason for the commutation? He said victims deserve answers.
“They will not forget that when they needed their government to stand with them against the man who stole their futures, their President chose to stand with the criminal instead,” Gallego wrote.
Rosenberg, the retiree from Nevada, said he still supports the president but can’t help but think Trump’s decision makes him “look like another of the swamp” that Trump says he wants to drain.
“I think Trump does a lot of good things,” he said, “but this is a bad one.”
Still, Rosenberg is hopeful Trump may do right by the victims — even if it’s just by admitting he made a mistake.
“I would like to think that he was fed some bad information somewhere along the way,” he said. “If that is the case … at least come forward and say, ‘I regret it.’ ”
Britain has condemned the conviction of Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, calling his prosecution politically motivated. The 78-year-old was found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s China-imposed national security law, a charge that carries a possible life sentence. Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, has been a prominent critic of Beijing and a symbol of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Why It Matters The case has become a powerful symbol of the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong since the introduction of the national security law in 2020. Britain’s condemnation highlights growing international concern over the use of the law to silence dissent and restrict freedom of expression. The verdict also deepens tensions between China and Western governments over human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
Key stakeholders include Jimmy Lai and other pro-democracy activists facing prosecution, the Hong Kong and Chinese governments enforcing the national security law, and the United Kingdom, which has repeatedly criticised Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong. The wider international community and human rights organisations are also closely watching the case.
What’s Next Lai still faces further legal proceedings, while Britain and other allies are expected to continue pressing for his release through diplomatic channels. The case is likely to intensify scrutiny of Hong Kong’s legal system and fuel renewed calls for international action in response to China’s handling of political dissent.
Filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch, who directed the 2013 action film “47 Ronin” starring Keanu Reeves, was convicted Thursday for defrauding Netflix of $11 million.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff found Rinsch guilty of wire fraud, money laundering and other charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York announced. Attorney Benjamin Zeman, who represents Rinsch, denounced the verdict in a statement shared Friday.
“I think the verdict was wrong and I fear that this could set a dangerous precedent for artists who become embroiled in contractual and creative disputes with their benefactors,” Zeman said, “in this case one of the largest media companies in the world, finding themselves indicted by the federal government for fraud.”
A representative for Netflix did not comment on Rinsch’s conviction.
Federal prosecutors alleged in a March indictment that the $11 million was meant to go toward finishing a TV show in which $44 million had already been invested. Prosecutors allege the money instead went into Rinsch’s personal accounts, his personal spending and his personal gains and losses. The director, 48, “quickly transferred” the money from the Rinsch Co. account, where it had been deposited March 6, 2020, by Netflix, through a number of additional accounts until about $10.5 million wound up weeks later in a personal brokerage account. Rinsch proceeded to lose more than half of that money in less than two months via risky investments in the stock market, the indictment said.
Though he told the streamer that his sci-fi show “White Horse” was “awesome and moving forward really well,” Rinsch, over the next couple of years, allegedly moved the remaining money into cryptocurrency and ultimately profited from crypto speculation. He was accused of spending around $10 million on five Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, watches, clothing, luxury bedding and linens, credit card bills, attorneys to sue Netflix for more money, and lawyers to work on his divorce.
According to the indictment, about $3.8 million was spent on furniture and antiques, including two mattresses that cost $638,000 total. The half-dozen cars cost a little over $2.4 million.
Rinsch was arrested in West Hollywood in March and released the same day after agreeing to post a $100,000 bond to guarantee his appearance in a New York federal court.
“Carl Erik Rinsch took $11 million meant for a TV show and gambled it on speculative stock options and crypto transactions,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said Thursday. “Today’s conviction shows that when someone steals from investors, we will follow the money and hold them accountable.”
Rinsch never finished the show. His sentencing is set for April.
Times assistant editor Christie D’Zurilla and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
