Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in New York Metropolis mentioned.
Combs was arrested on the Park Hyatt resort on West 57th Road, a consultant mentioned. He was caught off-guard by the apprehension, in accordance with an individual accustomed to the scenario, who added he had been residing on the resort for a number of weeks.
U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams confirmed in a press release that on Monday night, federal brokers arrested Combs primarily based on a sealed indictment filed by the Southern District of New York.
“We count on to maneuver to unseal the indictment within the morning and could have extra to say at the moment,” Williams mentioned.
Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo expressed disappointment in a press release. He mentioned Combs, 54, had been cooperative with the investigation and “voluntarily relocated to New York final week in anticipation of those expenses.”
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving household man, and confirmed philanthropist who has spent the final 30 years constructing an empire, adoring his youngsters, and dealing to uplift the Black neighborhood,” the assertion mentioned. “He’s an imperfect particular person however he isn’t a prison.”
“These are the acts of an harmless man with nothing to cover, and he appears ahead to clearing his title in court docket,” it added.
It was not instantly clear on what expenses Combs, the rapper-turned-music mogul, was arrested.
Combs has confronted a wave of lawsuits — one as latest as final week — accusing him of sexual assault and misconduct since November, when former girlfriend Casandra Ventura sued him in federal court docket, accusing him of years of bodily and sexual abuse.
Ventura, who’s finest recognized by her stage title, Cassie, was as soon as signed to Combs’ Unhealthy Boy report label. The 2 settled her lawsuit a day after it was filed, with out disclosing the phrases of the settlement. An lawyer for Combs mentioned the settlement was not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. He beforehand denied the allegations.
Since then, a variety of others have sued, together with Daybreak Richard, who alleged that he groped and threatened her when he employed her from 2005 to 2012 and that she witnessed him brutally beat Ventura. Combs has vehemently denied the accusations within the lawsuits, saying they had been “sickening allegations” from folks on the lookout for “a fast payday.”
However in Could, after CNN launched resort video of Combs kicking, punching and throwing Ventura on the ground in a hallway in Los Angeles in 2016, he apologized in a video on Instagram wherein he mentioned that his habits was “inexcusable” and that he had sought remedy. The video was later faraway from his web page.
Richard, who was a member of the woman group Danity Kane, which Combs shaped on the MTV actuality competitors “Making the Band,” and later the group Diddy — Soiled Cash, sued Combs final week.
An lawyer mentioned Combs was “shocked and upset” by Richard’s lawsuit, which, like Ventura’s criticism, depicts him as controlling and violent.
Ventura’s lawsuit included allegations of intercourse trafficking. She alleged that he continuously beat her, that he pressured her to interact in intercourse acts with male prostitutes — drug-fueled encounters Combs known as “freak offs” and generally recorded — and that in 2018, as she was making an attempt to finish their relationship, he pressured his method into her residence and raped her.
Richard mentioned in her swimsuit that she attended “drug-fueled events,” the place friends had been required to give up their telephones. She additionally mentioned she witnessed what she believed had been inebriated underage ladies being sexually violated by Combs and his friends.
In March, federal investigators searched Combs’ houses in Miami and Los Angeles.
Investigators interviewed a number of folks in relation to allegations of intercourse trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of unlawful narcotics and firearms, a supply accustomed to the investigation instructed NBC Information in March.
The warrant to go looking Combs’ properties got here from the Southern District of New York, NBC Information has reported.
Combs, who has additionally passed by such names as Puffy, Puff Daddy and Love, based Unhealthy Boy within the early Nineties. He’s considered a trailblazer of hip-hop, vogue and media, having created the Sean John clothes line and launched the Revolt TV channel, which he bought his stake in over the summer season.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer on Combs’ most up-to-date album, alleged in a lawsuit in February that Combs made undesirable sexual contact, pressured him to rent prostitutes and pressured him to take part in intercourse acts with them. Jones mentioned he lived and traveled with Combs from September 2022 to November 2023, throughout which period he recorded hours of video and audio of Combs, his workers and others “participating in critical criminality.”
His attorneys, Rodney S. Diggs and Tyrone Blackburn, who’re additionally representing different Combs accusers, mentioned Combs’ “lengthy awaited arrest” was “an vital step in the direction of justice for all of Mr. Combs’ victims.”
“We go away the prison facet of this case within the arms of the folks and justice system,” they mentioned Monday night time. “As for the civil instances, we await our time for the info to disclose themselves and search the justice our shoppers deserve. We additionally anticipate extra victims coming ahead. We knew this was coming. The proof may be very clear and it was solely a matter of time.”
After the resort video of Combs assaulting Ventura was printed, Howard College reduce ties with him. In June, the college rescinded an honorary diploma it awarded him and disbanded a scholarship program in his title. The identical month, Combs honored a request from New York Mayor Eric Adams and returned his key to town.
This month, Combs listed his residence in Los Angeles that was raided in March for $61.5 million.