Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs pleads not guilty to racketeering and sex trafficking

Hip-hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.

A federal indictment was unsealed after Combs was arrested late Monday night in New York City.

The filing paints Combs as the leader of a vast criminal enterprise that relied on employees and the influence of Combs’s business empire to attempt to “engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”

The indictment includes allegations dating back to 2008, claiming Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”

The three charges included on the indictment are racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The indictment says the purpose of the alleged criminal enterprise was to protect and promote Combs’s reputation, enhance his enterprise’s power, secure loyalty from individuals and reward that loyalty, and protect Combs from being prosecuted or detected for his alleged crimes through acts of intimidation, manipulation, bribery and threats.

The indictment also says a key purpose of the enterprise was to fulfill Combs’s “personal desires,” in particular those related to his sexual gratification, which, according to the indictment, included the “exploitation of women and the use of commercial sex workers.”

The indictment details what Combs allegedly described as “Freak Offs” – elaborate sex performances in which female victims were allegedly forced to participate in “extended sex acts” with male sex workers.

Women were often lured into Combs’s “orbit” by members of the criminal enterprise who used his position to intimidate or threaten the female victims, according to the indictment.

The women were then forced to participate in the Freak Offs, which Combs “arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded,” authorities alleged. The events sometimes lasted multiple days and included “a variety of controlled substances” that were allegedly distributed “in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant,” they added.

The indictment says after the Freak Offs, victims typically received IV fluids “to recover from the physical exertion and drug use.” Victims sometimes suffered physical injuries “that took days or weeks to heal,” according to the indictment.

The Freak Offs were allegedly arranged by members of Combs’s criminal enterprise, and tapes of the events were often allegedly used to coerce victims into silence. Careers and livelihoods were also threatened “if they resisted participating in Freak Offs,” authorities said.

“Victims believed they could not refuse Combs’ demands without risking their financial or job security or without repercussions in the form of physical or emotional abuse,” the indictment read.

Combs has faced a series of sexual assault allegations in the past year by women who spoke publicly about their alleged abuse, much of which Combs has denied.

The federal investigation into the music mogul made news in March, when his homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal officials.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, said on Tuesday that officials during those searches found evidence of crimes outlined in the indictment, including firearms and ammunition, tapes of the Freak Offs, and “cases and cases” of personal lubricant and baby oil that Combs’s staff allegedly used to stock hotel rooms for the Freak Offs.

Combs’s former girlfriend — R&B singer Casandra Ventura, known professionally as Cassie — filed a lawsuit last November alleging Combs had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of forcing her into unwanted sex in “drug-fueled settings,” according to The Associated Press. The former couple settled the suit soon after it was filed.

CNN later obtained and aired footage that showed Combs punching and kicking Ventura and dragging her to the floor. Combs subsequently apologized for the incident. He also faced a number of other lawsuits alleging sexual abuse.

The indictment includes details of the alleged incident with Ventura. Williams noted in Tuesday’s news conference that during the 2016 incident at the Los Angeles hotel, a member of the security staff intervened and Combs attempted to bribe the staff member “with a stack of cash to make sure that what happened was kept quiet.”

In a statement Monday night, Combs’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said he and his client were “disappointed” by the “unjust prosecution” of Combs, whom Agnifilo praised as a “music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist.”

“He is an imperfect person, but he Is not a criminal,” Agnifilo continued in his statement. “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,” he added.

Updated at 2:50 p.m. EDT