Timeline of the costs towards Sean Combs

Two years in the past, rap musician and mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs threw a lavish 53rd party at his $61m mansion in Beverly Hills.

A bunch of stars lined as much as toast his profession, with a visitor listing that included Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Mary J Blige, Kehlani, Tinashe, Chris Brown and Machine Gun Kelly.

The occasion coincided together with his thirtieth 12 months within the music trade – three a long time during which he fashioned his personal leisure empire and adjusted the sound of hip-hop, each as an artist and a producer for the likes of Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and The Infamous B.I.G.

Quick-forward to 2024, and his profession is on the ropes.

In a case filed in New York, the star has been accused of kidnapping, drugging and coercing ladies into sexual actions, generally by means of the usage of firearms and threats of violence.

The identical Los Angeles mansion that hosted his party was raided by police in March. There, officers seized provides that they are saying had been meant to be used in orgies generally known as “freak offs”, together with medicine and greater than 1,000 bottles of child oil.

Mr Combs has denied all the costs, coming into a not responsible plea on Tuesday, 17 September.

The court docket case comes after a 12 months during which the musician has confronted lawsuits from plenty of ladies.

Right here is how the allegations towards Mr Combs have stacked up.

Casandra Ventura, a singer and mannequin generally known as Cassie, was signed to Mr Combs’ report label and dated him for greater than a decade.

However in a civil lawsuit, she mentioned the mogul had used his place of energy to “set the groundwork” for a “manipulative and coercive romantic and sexual relationship”.

Her lawsuit included graphic descriptions of violent abuse, alleging that Mr Combs “usually beat and kicked Ms Ventura, leaving black eyes, bruises, and blood”.

She described events generally known as “freak offs” – drug-fuelled, days-long sexual performances – which Mr Combs allegedly coerced ladies into, and filmed for his personal pleasure.

Ms Ventura additionally accused the musician of sexual abuse and rape, and claimed that many of those incidents had been witnessed by his “tremendously loyal community” who “weren’t prepared to do something significant” to cease the violence.

The lawsuit additionally alleged that Mr Combs destroyed a automotive belonging to US rapper Child Cudi, to dissuade him from relationship her.

Mr Combs strenuously denied the allegations and accused Ms Ventura of extortion.

They settled the case for an undisclosed quantity a day after it was filed in New York, with Mr Combs sustaining his innocence.

Within the weeks after settling Cassie’s lawsuit, Mr Combs was accused of sexual assault relationship again to 1991 by a number of ladies.

One lawsuit was filed anonymously by a lady who claimed Mr Combs and one other man had coerced her into intercourse.

In a second, Joi Dickerson-Neal accused the star of drugging and sexually assaulting her when she was a university pupil in 1991. She additionally claimed he filmed the assault and confirmed it to different individuals with out her consent.

A 3rd girl, Liza Gardner, filed court docket papers accusing Mr Combs and one other man of raping her and her pal greater than 30 years in the past, when she was 16.

Ms Gardner additionally alleged that Mr Combs had turned violent days after the assault, choking her so onerous that she handed out.

Within the lawsuit, she mentioned Mr Combs had change into irate whereas attempting to trace down her pal, as a result of he was fearful she would inform “the woman he was with on the time”.

The lawsuits all got here shortly earlier than the expiration of the New York Grownup Survivors Act, which quickly allowed individuals who mentioned that they had been sexually abused to file claims, even after the statute of limitations had expired.

Mr Combs denied all of the allegations, and his spokesperson referred to as the lawsuits a “cash seize”.

One other girl sued in December, claiming she was “intercourse trafficked” and “gang raped” by Mr Combs, former Unhealthy Boy Data president Harve Pierre and one other man in 2003, when she was 17.

In court docket papers, the girl, identified solely as Jane Doe, alleged she was given “copious quantities of medicine and alcohol” earlier than the assault and was left in a lot ache that she may barely stand or keep in mind how she bought residence.

In response, Mr Combs mentioned he “didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged”, whereas Mr Pierre mentioned the “disgusting allegations” had been “false and a determined try for monetary achieve”.

On 6 December, Mr Combs responded to the flurry of lawsuits with a press release on his Instagram web page.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” he wrote. “For the final couple of weeks, I’ve sat silently and watched individuals attempt to assassinate my character, destroy my fame and my legacy.

“Sickening allegations have been made towards me by people searching for a fast payday. Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged. I’ll combat for my title, my household and for the reality.”

Music producer Rodney Jones Jr, who produced 9 tracks on 2023’s The Love Album, sued Mr Combs in February 2024, accusing the star of constructing undesirable sexual contact and forcing him to rent prostitutes and take part in intercourse acts with them.

In court docket papers filed in New York, Mr Jones additionally claimed that Mr Combs tried to “groom” him into having intercourse with one other man, telling him it was “a traditional follow within the music trade”.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Shawn Holley, referred to as Mr Jones “nothing greater than a liar” and described his claims as “pure fiction” that might be discredited by “overwhelming, indeniable proof”.

CCTV footage emerged exhibiting Mr Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura within the hallway of a Los Angeles resort in 2016.

The images, broadcast by CNN, confirmed a person pushing Ms Ventura to the ground and kicking her whereas she was on the bottom. He later tried to pull her by her shirt and throw an object at her.

A day later, Mr Combs apologised, saying: “I take full accountability for my actions in that video. I used to be disgusted then after I did it. I am disgusted now.”

Ms Ventura later posted a press release highlighting the lifelong influence of home violence. “It broke me right down to somebody I by no means thought I’d change into,” she wrote.

Mannequin and actress Crystal McKinney accused Mr Combs of drugging her and forcing her to carry out oral intercourse within the toilet of a New York Metropolis recording studio in 2003.

Two days later, Mr Combs was sued once more by April Lampros, who alleged 4 cases of sexual assault between 1995 and about 2000.

Ms Lampros claimed she met the musician in 1994 whereas a pupil on the Trend Institute of Expertise, and that an initially romantic relationship “shortly become an aggressive, coercive, and abusive relationship primarily based on intercourse”.

In a single incident, she claimed the star compelled her to take ecstasy and have intercourse together with his then-girlfriend.

Former grownup movie star Adria English claimed she was “groomed into intercourse trafficking over time” in plenty of occasions between 2004 and 2009 at Mr Combs’s star-studded events.

His lawyer Jonathan Davis responded: “Irrespective of what number of lawsuits are filed it will not change the truth that Mr Combs has by no means sexually assaulted or intercourse trafficked anybody.”

Mr Combs did not attend a digital listening to for a lawsuit filed towards him by Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a Michigan inmate who claimed the star drugged and sexually assaulted him at a celebration in Detroit in 1997.

The no-show led to a default judgment towards Mr Combs, who was ordered to pay Mr Caredello-Smith $100m (£75m).

The judgment was later put aside, after the musician’s attorneys filed an enchantment.

Daybreak Richard, a former singer in Mr Combs’ woman group undertaking Danity Kane, filed a swimsuit towards the star.

The singer, who later joined Mr Combs within the band Diddy Soiled Cash, alleged that the musician sexually assaulted her on a number of events by touching her physique, in addition to verbally abusing and overworking her.

The star was arrested in a Manhattan resort room after a grand jury indictment.

His lawyer mentioned the star had co-operated with authorities, and voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the costs.

“These are the acts of an harmless man with nothing to cover, and he seems to be ahead to clearing his title in court docket,” he added.

In an look on the US District Courtroom in New York, Mr Combs was charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to interact in prostitution.

In an indictment that was unsealed on the similar time, prosecutors alleged that he additionally engaged in kidnapping, compelled labour, bribery and different crimes.

They described him as the top of a felony enterprise that abused ladies, utilizing threats of violence to pressure them into collaborating in drug-fuelled orgies with male prostitutes.

These “freak offs” had been “elaborate and produced intercourse performances” and had been extremely organised events, prosecutors mentioned.

Mr Combs’ associates allegedly booked resort suites, recruited intercourse employees and distributed medicine together with cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone to coerce partygoers into intercourse and maintain them “obedient”.

His workers allegedly organized journey for the victims and organised the provision of intravenous fluids to assist them get well from the events, which generally lasted for days.

Prosecutors additionally alleged that Mr Combs taped the “freak offs” and would use the footage to strain his victims into silence.

If convicted, the musician faces a sentence of 15 years as much as life in jail.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, declared his shopper’s innocence, and described the “freak offs” as consensual.

“Is it intercourse trafficking?” he requested. “Not if all people desires to be there.”

Mr Combs pleaded not responsible to the costs.

However he was denied bail after prosecutors argued that he posed “a major threat” to the trial, reporting that he had “already tried to hinder the federal government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of occasions”.

The decide cited the star’s anger points and historical past of substance abuse as causes for conserving him detained till the trial.

“My concern is that it is a crime that occurs behind closed doorways,” he mentioned.

Mr Combs’ attorneys have repeatedly appealed the choice, providing to position the star beneath the watch of a round the clock non-public safety staff.

Nevertheless Choose Andrew L Carter Jr mentioned that, even beneath these phrases, Mr Combs may nonetheless use workers to contact witnesses.

He’s being detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart till his trial, which is tentatively scheduled for five Could 2025.

Combs was moved to a particular unit on the Metropolitan Detention Centre, separate from the final jail inhabitants.

Across the similar time, he was served with a brand new lawsuit – from a lady who claimed Combs and his bodyguard had drugged, certain and violently raped her in 2001, and later confirmed a video of the assault to others.

In a information convention, Thalia Graves mentioned the “lasting results” of the assault had created “a cycle of affected by which it’s onerous to interrupt free”; including that she felt “nugatory, remoted and generally accountable” for what had occurred to her.

On the time of writing, Combs’ attorneys had not responded to the allegations.

A lawyer mentioned greater than 100 individuals plan to sue Combs for sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation.

Tony Buzbee mentioned he was representing 120 individuals, half of whom had been males, and 25 of whom had been minors – the primary time Mr Combs has been accused of sexually abusing youngsters. One was aged 9 on the time of the alleged assault.

Mr Buzbee mentioned his agency was working to vet one other 100 instances.

Mr Combs’ lawyer mentioned the rapper “emphatically and categorically” denied the allegations, saying they had been “false and defamatory”.

Six lawsuits had been filed in New York with accusations from two unnamed ladies and 4 unnamed males by Mr Buzbee.

One of many accusers mentioned he was 16 when he attended one of many rapper’s events within the Hamptons in 1998. Within the lawsuit, he mentioned the rapper ordered him to undress whereas they had been discussing the teenager breaking into the music trade.

One other lawsuit filed by an unnamed girl accused Mr Combs of raping her at a resort occasion after they met at a photoshoot.

Mr Combs’ authorized staff dismissed the lawsuits as “clear makes an attempt to garner publicity.”

“Mr Combs and his authorized staff have full confidence within the information, their authorized defenses, and the integrity of the judicial course of,” his attorneys mentioned in a press release, including “Mr Combs has by no means sexually assaulted anybody – grownup or minor, man or girl.”

One other lawsuit accuses Mr Combs of raping a lady as “payback” for her suggestion that he was concerned within the homicide of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Ashley Parham’s lawsuit filed in California claims she was raped by a number of individuals, together with Mr Combs, as a result of he was angered by the Tupac remark.

She says that Mr Combs had “a knife and held it to the precise facet of [her] face and threatened to offer her a ‘Glasgow smile’ in retaliation for her earlier statements”.

Shakur’s homicide has by no means been absolutely solved, though former gang member Duane “Keffe D” Davis was charged within the case final 12 months.

Mr Davis, whose trial will start in March 2025, beforehand claimed that Mr Combs supplied him $1m (£769,000) to kill Shakur.

Seven new civil lawsuits are filed towards the star in a federal court docket in New York.

4 males and three ladies accuse the hip-hop mogul of sexually assaulting them at numerous events in Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas.

The youngest plaintiff was 13 on the time of the alleged incident.

His attorneys just lately dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear makes an attempt to garner publicity”, stressing that “Mr Combs has by no means sexually assaulted anybody – grownup or minor, man or girl.”

Two new lawsuits are filed towards the music mogul, accusing him of sexual assault.

Each lawsuits, which had been filed in New York, embrace accusations by males who had been underage on the time of the alleged assaults.

In a single, the alleged sufferer was 10 on the time. The second alleges Mr Combs assaulted a teenage boy who was auditioning for the favored MTV actuality present Making the Band, which the rapper produced.

In a press release to the BBC, representatives for Mr Combs mentioned he “by no means sexually assaulted or trafficked anybody – man or girl, grownup or minor”.

5 extra nameless lawsuits had been filed towards Mr Combs on 19 November from three males and two ladies. The fits centre on allegations of sexual assault at events with no less than two of them outlining rape accusations towards Mr Combs.

Two further lawsuits had been additionally filed – each towards a lawyer who has filed a big share of the civil lawsuits towards Mr Combs.

One of many lawsuits towards Tony Buzbee, a Texas-based lawyer who says he represents greater than 100 victims, allege he tried to extort the plaintiff – an unnamed “high-profile particular person” – by threatening to make public “completely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault”.

In court docket paperwork obtained by the BBC, the plaintiff recognized himself as a former affiliate of Diddy and acknowledged attending occasions with the embattled music mogul.

Within the second lawsuit, an unnamed girl alleged he was abusive towards ladies.

The New York summons states Mr Buzbee abused his energy as an lawyer and violated the unnamed girl whereas representing her as a shopper.

Mr Buzbee denied the allegations.

A 3rd try to get Mr Combs launched from jail failed, after a decide mentioned there was “proof supporting a severe threat of witness tampering“.

The star’s attorneys had argued he needs to be launched to permit satisfactory time to arrange for his trial, which is ready to start on 5 Could 2025.

However prosecutors accused the musician of breaking jail guidelines by contacting potential witnesses utilizing different inmates’ phone accounts, and coercing others in his orbit to put up on-line with a view to sway public opinion and profit his defence.

US District Choose Arun Subramanian concluded the court docket couldn’t belief Mr Combs if launched on bail.

Clothier Bryana “Bana” Bongolan filed a lawsuit alleging that Mr Combs threatened to kill her and dangled her over a seventeenth ground balcony, throughout an incident in 2016.

Ms Bongolan mentioned she had labored on a number of tasks for the star, and witnessed what she described as “disturbing indicators of an abusive relationship” between Mr Combs and Ms Ventura – together with one combat the place the star allegedly “threw a big kitchen knife at Ms Ventura, who, performing in self-defence, threw one again at him”.

In her lawsuit, Ms Bongolan claimed the star later started “directing his rage” in direction of her, and assaulted her after a sleepover in Ventura’s residence.

Through the altercation, she alleges, the star “lifted her up greater and better over the seventeenth ground balcony of Ms. Ventura’s residence with solely Combs’ grip conserving her from falling to her demise”.

A consultant for Mr Combs informed the BBC he “firmly denies these severe allegations” and “stays assured they may in the end be confirmed baseless”.

Jay-Z was accused of raping a 13-year-old woman with Sean Combs, in an replace to a lawsuit initially filed in October 2024.

The star vehemently denied the allegation – revealing that they had been the one who had beforehand tried to sue lawyer Tony Buzbee for extortion.

In an in depth assertion, Jay-Z referred to as the claims “idiotic” and mentioned that he got here from a world the place “we shield youngsters.”

The musician added that he had acquired a requirement letter from Mr Buzbee trying to hunt a non-public monetary settlement. Nevertheless, he mentioned the letter had had the “reverse impact”.

“It made me wish to expose you for the fraud you might be in a VERY public vogue. So no, I can’t offer you ONE RED PENNY!!” the assertion learn.

The nameless girl behind the accusations later withdraws her authorized motion. Jay-Z subsequently sues her for defamation.

After repeatedly being denied bail, the musician dropped additional makes an attempt at securing his launch from the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Heart.

He’ll stay behind his bars till his trial begins.

Shortly afterwards, Combs confronted additional allegations of rape in a number of lawsuits.

Three nameless male accusers claimed that they got spiked drinks after which raped in incidents as just lately as 2022.

In a separate lawsuit, an unnamed girl mentioned she was raped by Combs at a New York charity basketball occasion in December 1991.

And Oklahoma native LaTroya Grayson alleged that she was drugged and raped at a celebration in 2006 after successful a radio station contest.

Combs continued to disclaim all the costs towards him.

Prosecutors in New York expanded their case towards Combs, accusing him of coercing two further ladies into business intercourse acts, and of dangling an individual over an residence balcony.

The ladies’s names had been added to the federal case towards him, however no new fees had been filed.

In response, his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, mentioned the prosecution’s case “stays flawed”.

“The federal government has added the ridiculous idea that two of Mr Combs’s former girlfriends weren’t girlfriends in any respect, however had been prostitutes,” he mentioned.

“Mr Combs is as dedicated as ever to combating these fees and successful at trial.”

Ten new lawsuits had been filed on 28 February, forward of the deadline for New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act, which gave victims a two-year window to lodge historic instances that will beforehand have been too outdated to return to trial.

Amongst them is a grievance from an nameless male escort who claimed Combs sexually assaulted him, then threatened him to maintain quiet by allegedly saying, “If I can get Pac [Tupac] hit, what the [expletive] do you suppose can occur to you?”

One other lawsuit is filed by Kirk Burrowes, the co-founder of Combs’ firm Unhealthy Boy Leisure. In authorized papers, Burrowes alleged that, on a number of events, Combs summoned him to his workplace the place, upon arrival, he would discover the musician partaking in sexual acts.

Burrowes claimed “Combs orchestrated these encounters as a method of psychologically breaking down Plaintiff’s resistance and establishing his submission”.

Combs’ attorneys dismissed the flurry of recent claims.

“We stay in a world the place anybody can file a lawsuit for any cause,” they mentioned in a press release.

“With the deadline for New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act expiring tomorrow, it is clear that opportunists are speeding to file last-minute, meritless claims. Mr Combs stays assured he’ll prevail in court docket.”

The federal government amended its case towards Combs, including accusations that the hip-hop mogul compelled workers to work lengthy hours and threatened to punish those that didn’t help in his alleged two-decade intercourse trafficking scheme.

Combs appeared in court docket every week later to plead not responsible.

Carrying a inexperienced/tan jail jumpsuit, with overgrown gray hair and a beard, the musician was described as smiling in court docket, in addition to waving and blowing kisses to his household.

In a court docket listening to, Combs’ authorized staff tried to get the notorious “hallway assault” video dismissed as proof at his trial.

They argued that evaluation of the safety digital camera footage, which confirmed Combs assaulting Cassandra Ventura, recommended that it had been sped up from its unique supply, that occasions had been depicted out of sequence and that point stamps on the unique tape had been coated up.

Choose Arun Subramanian requested the 2 sides to succeed in a compromise, suggesting that if it the footage was out of sequence, they might discover a option to restore it or to gradual it down in a manner that mirrored the unique.

CNN, which aired the unique footage, denied making any edits.

Federal prosecutors amended the indictment towards Combs for a 3rd time, including two new fees of intercourse trafficking and transportation to interact in prostitution.

Each fees associated to a lady described as “Sufferer-2”. Prosecutors alleged that Combs used pressure, fraud or coercion to recruit, harbour and transport the girl throughout state strains, with the intent of partaking in prostitution between 2021 and 2024.

The brand new cost carries a compulsory minimal sentence of 15 years in jail.

In a press release, Combs’ attorneys mentioned, “These usually are not new allegations or new accusers.

“These are the identical people, former long-term girlfriends, who had been concerned in consensual relationships. This was their non-public intercourse life, outlined by consent, not coercion.”

Jury choice within the trial is scheduled for the top of April.