Sean Combs Accused of Threatening and Abusing Staffers in New Indictment
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of threatening and physically abusing his employees in a second superseding indictment that was returned today as part of the embattled mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering criminal case.
The new 15-page indictment, obtained by Rolling Stone, did not name any new co-defendants but instead focuses on Combs’ alleged abusive treatment and forced labor of employees who worked across Combs’ multiple businesses. The 55-year-old is accused of maintaining control over certain employees’ lives by leading them to “believe they would be harmed — including by losing their jobs — if they did not comply with his demands,” according to Southern District of New York prosecutors.
“With respect to one employee, Combs used physical force, physiological harm, financial harm, reputational harm and/or threats of the same to cause the employee to engage in sex acts with Combs,” the indictment alleges.
Combs remains charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution following his September 2024 arrest. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is currently awaiting his May trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. If convicted, he faces 15 years to life in prison.
In response to the new indictment, Combs’ lead defense attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said there were plenty of former employees who would vouch for their boss. “Mr. Combs has said it before and will say it again: He vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY,” Agnifilo said in a statement provided to Rolling Stone. “Many former employees stand by his side, prepared to attest to the dedication, hard work, and inspiration they experienced while helping build groundbreaking, award-winning businesses.
“He looks forward to his day in court when it will become clear that he has never forced anyone to engage in sexual acts against their will,” Agnifilo added.
Prosecutors have accused Combs of using his billion-dollar empire as a “criminal enterprise” to commit a range of offenses, according to the indictment, including “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice” from 2004 to 2024. Painting a picture of a dangerous and abusive man, prosecutors claim Combs forced romantic partners to submit to his will and sexual fantasies through manipulation, coercion, threats, and violence, including once attempting to beat down a woman’s door with a hammer.
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The new indictment accuses Combs of weaponizing his company and a team of loyal staffers to carry out his demands, which he allegedly did so by maintaining control over certain employees, “whom he forced to work long hours with little sleep, through use of, among other things, physical force, psychological harm, financial harm and reputational harm, and/or threats of the same.”
In January, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York released the first superseding indictment against Combs, which added two alleged female victims whom Combs is accused of forcing into commercial sex acts with male sex workers.
The original 14-page indictment from September seemed to closely follow the accusations that R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura leveled against Combs in her explosive sexual abuse lawsuit from November 2023. Ventura alleged that throughout her decade-long relationship with her Bad Boy label boss, she was physically beaten and forced to consume narcotics while having sex with male sex workers. Combs denied her allegations and the lawsuit was settled within 24 hours.
As Combs prepares for trial, his defense attorneys have claimed that he is coming to court a changed man. They said he’d sought professional help and gone to rehab years prior to address his substance-use issues. However, a Rolling Stone investigation from January found Combs was still volatile, still taking altering substances, and was still allegedly sexually abusive. Combs’ former executive assistant, Phil Pines, detailed how he was forced to work constantly, which deteriorated his mental health. More than a dozen people have claimed that Combs physically attacked, drugged, and/or sexually assaulted them between 2016 and 2024.