EGN NEWS DESK
Federal brokers raided properties in Los Angeles and Miami on Monday which are linked to the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, an individual with information of the case stated.
Homeland Security Investigations carried out the raids however didn’t present particulars in regards to the case, together with whether or not Mr. Combs was a goal or which prison expenses had been being investigated. Mr. Combs, who’s also called Puff Daddy or Diddy, has been accused of sexual assault and intercourse trafficking in a number of civil lawsuits during the last a number of months.
A spokesperson for Mr. Combs didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The prison inquiry was being carried out by federal prosecutors within the Southern District of New York and federal brokers with Homeland Security, a law-enforcement official stated. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the Southern District, declined to remark.
In a press release, Homeland Security stated that brokers from New York had “executed legislation enforcement actions as a part of an ongoing investigation, with help from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our native legislation enforcement companions.”
Video from Fox 11 (KTTV), a neighborhood tv station in Los Angeles, confirmed armed officers getting into a house within the Holmby Hills space of town, which a law-enforcement official stated was linked to Mr. Combs. Public data in California additionally point out that the house is owned by an organization led by Mr. Combs.
The raids had been a surprising growth within the profession of Combs, 54, a producer, label government and occasional rapper who has been one of the influential and well known figures within the music enterprise during the last 30 years.
He performed an integral function within the transformation of hip-hop into a world business drive, crafting hits and larger-than-life personas for rap and R&B performers just like the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. He additionally made smash hits himself with songs like “I’ll Be Missing You” (1997), a ballad to the Notorious B.I.G. after his killing in a drive-by taking pictures, which featured Faith Evans, the rapper’s widow, and sampled the Police’s hit “Every Breath You Take.”
But Mr. Combs has additionally been dogged for many years by accusations of violence. In November, he was sued for sexual assault by Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend, who was additionally signed to his label, Bad Boy, because the performing artist Cassie.
In her go well with, Ms. Ventura accused Mr. Combs of forcing her to have interaction in sexual exercise with male prostitutes over a interval of years. The go well with stated that on account of these encounters, which befell in quite a few cities throughout the United States, Ms. Ventura was a sufferer of intercourse trafficking.
Ms. Ventura’s civil go well with was settled in simply in the future, along with her and Mr. Combs saying their dispute had been resolved “amicably.”
That case, filed in an in depth 35-page grievance, drew headlines world wide and imperiled the enterprise model he had steadily constructed up over many years. In the months earlier than Ms. Ventura’s go well with, Mr. Combs was given business awards and launched his first studio album in 17 years.
Even after its settlement, Ms. Ventura’s go well with was adopted by a number of extra instances, every accusing Mr. Combs of sexual assault. In one case filed final month, a music producer, Rodney Jones, stated that Mr. Combs had made undesirable sexual contact with him, and compelled him to rent prostitutes and take part in intercourse acts with them. In current months, lots of Mr. Combs’s enterprise companions have distanced themselves from him.
Federal investigators in New York have been main the investigation, and have been conducting interviews asking potential witnesses about sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to Mr. Combs for a number of months, in accordance with an individual conversant in the interviews.
Mr. Combs has denied the accusations in opposition to him. In December, after an nameless girl filed a go well with accusing Mr. Combs and two different males of raping her in a New York recording studio in 2003, when she was 17, the music mogul stated: “Sickening allegations have been made in opposition to me by people on the lookout for a fast payday. Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged.”
After Mr. Jones’s go well with final month, Shawn Holley, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, stated Mr. Jones is “nothing greater than a liar who filed a $30 million lawsuit shamelessly on the lookout for an undeserved payday,” and referred to as his accusations “pure fiction.” Ms. Holley and two different legal professionals for Mr. Combs additionally didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Monday.
In a press release on Monday, Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represents Ms. Ventura and the nameless girl who sued Mr. Combs alleging the assault at a New York studio, stated: “We will at all times help legislation enforcement when it seeks to prosecute people who have violated the legislation. Hopefully, that is the start of a course of that may maintain Mr. Combs answerable for his wicked conduct.”
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. and Chelsia Rose Marcius from New York.
