A wall of secrets may crumble as feds call out enablers of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' alleged sex crimes

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court surrounded by cameras.

Sept. 19, 2024 Updated 9:43 AM PT

Sean “Diddy” Combs was the only defendant indicted this week in a sweeping sex trafficking and racketeering investigation.

But federal prosecutors made clear that they do not believe he was the only one responsible.

For the record:

9:48 a.m. Sept. 19, 2024A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Mary Graw Leary, a professor of law at Columbus School of Law.

The 14-page indictment against Combs accuses the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment of luring female victims and using violence, coercion and drugs to get women to take part in “freak offs” — elaborate sex performances that often were recorded and sometimes lasted days.

The case alleges an extensive network, a complicated scheme that would have required multiple people to not just know but be involved to recruit victims, organize the freak offs, clean up and cover the tracks so law enforcement would not get involved.

“Combs did not do this all on his own,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in announcing the charges. “He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.”

Williams would not comment on whether more indictments were coming but said the investigation was “active and ongoing.”

“I can’t take anything off the table,” he said. “Anything is possible.”

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including the federal racketeering count — a charge most often seen against organized crime figures. John Gotti, James “Whitey” Bulger and associates of the Mexican Mafia and South L.A.’s Crips have faced the charge in the past.

Authorities said Combs’ power and money allowed him to evade exposure for years. But some legal experts said the indictment might change that.

Matt Murphy, a former prosecutor who handled sex crimes for four years in Orange County, said the wall of secrecy may be coming down.

The racketeering charge means anyone involved in the enterprise could face criminal charges, Murphy said, explaining, “there are people who have witnessed things who are going to have their own criminal interests to worry about now.”

That can put pressure on associates to testify against Combs, he said.

“We don’t know yet, but I’m sure there’s insiders in his organization that face criminal liability, that are going to become federal witnesses,” Murphy said.

According to court records, prosecutors allege they have obtained information from “dozens of victims and witnesses” — as well as communications with sex workers and travel records and recordings, including “dozens of video recordings created by [Combs] of Freak Offs with victims.”

“This indictment only mentions Combs, even though it describes many other participants,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor. “Then you ask the question, ‘Are all those participants getting a deal [from prosecutors], or will some of them be joining the defendant?’”

Federal prosecutors say Combs used his billion-dollar music and business empire to carry out the alleged crimes. According to the indictment, security, household staff, personal assistants and other associates took part — and helped hide the criminal activity by using violence, intimidation, manipulation, bribery and threats.

For example, the indictment states that before the alleged freak offs, employees and associates were tasked with luring female victims to take part, “often under the pretense of a romantic relationship.”

Others were assigned to book hotel rooms and stock them with what prosecutors called “Freak Off supplies” such as drugs, baby oil, lubricant, lighting and extra linens.

Employees and associates of Combs also were instructed to arrange the victims’ travel, hire sex workers, supply Combs with large sums of cash to pay sex workers, and resupply the rooms when Combs asked.

In the days afterward, according to the complaint, staff would supply Combs and others with IV fluids to recuperate. Others were tasked with cleaning up the rooms “to mitigate room damage.”

Combs and others also used drugs, threats to cut off financial support, videos from the freak offs and their influence over the entertainment industry to keep victims participating and from going public, according to the indictment.

“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 reads.

Associates of Combs’ businesses, the indictment states, helped to conceal evidence and kept track of the victims to make sure they didn’t leave hotels or Combs’ homes.

The indictment also points to a 2016 video, obtained by CNN in May, showing Combs kicking and dragging his then-girlfriend Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura.

After a member of the hotel security intervened, according to the indictment, Combs allegedly tried to bribe them.

Prosecutors also alleged that Combs and his associates, after getting wind of a possible investigation, reached out to women and pressured them to give a false version of events, bribed them or threatened them.

In one case, prosecutors stated that Combs called a victim asking for her “friendship,” then tried to convince her she had engaged willingly in the acts.

Mary Graw Leary — a professor at Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C., and the former director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse — likened Combs’ indictment to sexual crimes and allegations made against celebrities such Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly.

In many of those cases, there were numerous people with knowledge of some of the events, yet it took years for allegations to surface.

“The number of people that are aware and facilitating this type of sexual exploitation of vulnerable women is many, many, many, and yet no one speaks up, and that is troubling,” Graw Leary said.

Wealth is one of the tools used to keep alleged illegal activities under wraps, but Leary said influence, power and the public image of the individual also play a role.

She pointed to the 2002 charges of child pornography that were initially filed against Kelly, and the significant public pushback prosecutors faced during that time. Kelly was acquitted of those charges in 2008.

It wasn’t until years later, after allegations surfaced in articles published by journalist Jim Derogatis, that new investigations were launched and Kelly was convicted in 2022 of multiple charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering.

“It’s secret from the general public because power is part of the grooming,” she said. “Being a pillar of society, a source of power, that precludes this from getting to the greater public, or creates resistance that the public would accept it.”

Combs’ attorneys vowed to fight the charges.

“He’s going to fight this to the end. “He’s innocent,” Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo said outside court this week. “He came to New York to establish his innocence. He’s not afraid; he’s not afraid of the charges. There’s nothing that the government said in their presentation today that changes anyone’s mind about anything.”

Combs was ordered held without bail. His attorneys have appealed the decision, arguing in a letter to the judge that the music star has taken several steps to prove he’s not a flight risk, including traveling to New York with the intent to surrender to authorities, and handing over his passport to his attorneys.

A judge on Wednesday ordered Combs to remain in custody until his trial.