How Cassie's lawsuit laid the groundwork for Sean Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering charges
Here’s a look at what preceded the legal inquiry into Sean "Diddy" Combs, one of the most prominent figures in the music industry
In June 2022, during his acceptance speech at the BET Awards, where he was honored with a lifetime achievement award, Sean Combs reflected on having been “in a dark place for a few years” and thanked a handful of people who he said had been there for him in that period.
He credited Cassie, his former longtime girlfriend, a model and R&B singer once signed to his music label whose real name is Casandra Ventura, with “holding me down in the dark times.”
Roughly a year and a half later, in November 2023, Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in federal court in Manhattan, accusing him of repeated physical abuse over more than a decade, of forcing her to have sex with male sex workers while he masturbated and filmed them, and of raping her in September 2018, near the end of their relationship, among other accusations.
In the run-up to Combs’ trial, scheduled to start in May, here’s a look at what preceded the legal inquiry into one of the most prominent figures in the music industry, who founded Bad Boy Records and helped to make stars of Mary J. Blige, Usher and the Notorious B.I.G.
Combs is no stranger to allegations of violence, but the claims in Ventura’s suit, though settled in 2023, would not easily go away. Ventura and Combs settled privately in one day, with Combs denying any wrongdoing. But months after the settlement, federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, and a steady stream of civil lawsuits accusing him of similar conduct followed.
Rating: 5