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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Dark World Is ‘Actually Even Worse Than Anybody Knows’
From Puff Daddy to Puffy to P. Diddy, Diddy, PD and even, briefly, Love, music mogul Sean Combs has been called a lot of things during his decades-long career in the entertainment industry. Federal prosecutors have a new name for the rapper: defendant. In a 14-page indictment issued by the Southern District of New York and unsealed September 17, prosecutors paint Diddy as the kingpin of a shocking “criminal enterprise” that allowed him to abuse, threaten and coerce women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct.”
The previous day, Diddy was arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and taken into custody by Homeland Security agents. He’s now facing three criminal counts: racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, to which he’s pleaded not guilty. The indictment opens a view into Diddy’s sick world of drug-fueled sex parties known as Freak Offs and the lengths to which he and his employees allegedly went to conceal his behavior. Feds claim the 54-year-old, worth an estimated $400 million, engaged in “a persistent and pervasive pattern” of emotional, physical and sexual abuse against women then “pressured witnesses and victims, including through attempted bribery, to stay silent.” As horrific as the indictment is, a source tells In Touch, “it’s actually even worse than anybody knows.”
Stars flocked to Diddy’s glitzy parties, including his famous Labor Day bash. “Diddy’s White Parties weren’t only the place to be seen, but a chance for the Hollywood A-listers and socialites to get an exclusive look into his world,” says the source. But the depraved gatherings at the center of Diddy’s arrest are something completely different. According to prosecutors, Diddy used his music industry success to lure women into his orbit, often under the pretense of romantic relationships, then “used force, threats of force and coercion” to get them to “engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers” at “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often electronically recorded.” The days-long sexfests often necessitated “IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use,” the indictment adds.
The indictment paints a picture of parties stocked with drugs like cocaine, oxycodone, alprazolam and ketamine and other disturbing supplies. During raids on Diddy’s residences in March, for example, the indictment reveals law enforcement seized “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.”
One Department of Homeland Security agent who visited Diddy’s $35 million Florida mansion in March — his California home, which he listed for sale for $61.5 million in September, was also searched — told a news outlet that the “Mo Money Mo Problems” hitmaker had rooms that were filled with sex toys, bondage gear, lingerie — and hidden cameras. “You were being recorded from every possible angle, including angles you wouldn’t have known about,” the agent explained, adding that the women involved were “either barely legal, or barely illegal.”
The agent branded Diddy “as bad as Jeffrey Epstein,” the convicted pedophile financier who died in a New York jail at 66 in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo denied the similarity, insisting in court September 17, “these were consenting adults.”
Not according to the feds. Diddy ensured participation from the women by controlling their careers, tracking their whereabouts and using “intimidation and violence,” prosecutors say. He allegedly assaulted women by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at and kicking them” causing injuries that could take days or weeks to heal.
He got away with it for more than a decade, prosecutors claim, by relying on his employees, who he sometimes controlled with violence, to ensure witnesses kept their mouths shut. There are also reports of potential blackmail material, with feds confirming Diddy “used the sensitive, embarrassing and incriminating recordings that he made during Freak Offs as collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims.”
Indeed, aside from those who’ve filed civil lawsuits, few have spoken out. According to rapper, actor and producer 50 Cent, 49, that’s because “some of them were involved, at the parties and enjoyed themselves, so they don’t know what the f–k is on tape,” as he told The Hollywood Reporter in July. Hip-hop radio host Charlamagne Tha God, 46, believes “there will be others involved,” warning on The Breakfast Club September 17, “If you’ve ever been butt naked anywhere with Diddy and there was some women around or men around that he told you were part of the party, you’re probably going to jail.” Says the source: “There are dozens of people in Hollywood who are terrified of being called to testify. It could spell ruin.”
Then there are the civil lawsuits. Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, 38, who was in a relationship with Diddy for about a decade until 2018, bravely opened the floodgates last November when she filed a 35-page complaint accusing Diddy of sexual assault, battery and sex trafficking. He’s also facing at least seven other suits from people including singer Dawn Richards (who says she witnessed him perform sex acts on passed-out women at his parties, telling guests, “This is what we do, this is how we party”); producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones (who alleges he was required to tape sex acts for Diddy); and Liza Garner (who says Diddy forced her to have sex when she was only 16). Diddy has denied all the allegations.
Diddy’s legal woes have led authorities to revisit other troubling claims. A September 16 news report claims federal investigators have been quietly collaborating with Nevada authorities to revisit the drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur in 1996. (Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the suspect in the case, previously alleged that Diddy solicited him to kill the star.) While in May, Rolling Stone sparked fresh speculation about the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace) when it reported Biggie allegedly planned to cut ties with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records label shortly before his death. Diddy has denied any involvement in the killings.
Diddy’s 2001 hit “Bad Boy for Life” may have been eerily premonitory: If convicted, he faces a minimum of 15 years and up to life in prison. The court twice denied him bail following his arrest — prosecutors argued the court can’t guard against the risk of Diddy threatening or manipulating witnesses — leaving Diddy locked up in Brooklyn’s notoriously violent Metropolitan Detention Center until his trial. “Diddy is worried he could lose his fortune, his homes, his whole life,” says the source. “And after all these accusations, he fears he may not even live to see his trial.”
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