Prosecutors mentioned in court docket papers that that they had interviewed greater than 50 victims and witnesses and anticipate the quantity to develop. They mentioned they’d use monetary, journey and billing information, digital knowledge and communications and movies of the “Freak Offs” to show their case.
Combs was arrested Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
A conviction on each cost would require at the very least 15 years in jail, with the potential of a life sentence.
The indictment describes Combs as the pinnacle of a felony enterprise that engaged or tried to have interaction in intercourse trafficking, pressured labour, interstate transportation for functions of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
Combs and his associates wielded his “energy and status” to intimidate and lure ladies into his orbit, “typically below the pretense of a romantic relationship”, in keeping with the indictment.
It says he then would use pressure, threats and coercion to get the ladies to have interaction with male intercourse employees within the “Freak Offs” – “elaborate and produced intercourse performances” that Combs organized and recorded, creating dozens of movies.
He ensured their participation by procuring and offering medicine, controlling their careers, leveraging his monetary assist and utilizing intimidation and violence, in keeping with the indictment. It mentioned his workers facilitated “Freak Offs” by caring for duties like journey and lodge preparations and stocking them with such provides as medicine and child oil.
The occasions might final for days, and Combs and victims would typically obtain IV fluids to recuperate from the exertion and drug use, the indictment mentioned.
Throughout the searches of Combs’ houses earlier this yr, regulation enforcement seized narcotics, movies of the performances and greater than 1,000 bottles of child oil and lubricant, in keeping with prosecutors. They mentioned brokers additionally seized firearms and ammunition, together with three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers in his bed room closet in Miami.
Combs’ lawyer mentioned his shopper didn’t personal the weapons, noting that he employs a safety firm.
The indictment says Combs choked, shoved, hit and kicked individuals, inflicting accidents that usually took days or perhaps weeks to heal. His workers and associates typically stored victims from leaving or tracked down those that tried, the indictment mentioned.
It alleges that Combs used express recordings as “collateral” to make sure the ladies’s continued obedience and silence. He additionally exerted management over victims by promising profession alternatives, offering and threatening to withhold monetary assist, dictating how they regarded, monitoring their well being information and controlling the place they lived, in keeping with the indictment.
As the specter of felony expenses loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to remain silent, providing bribes and supplying false narratives of what occurred, the indictment says.
In a court docket submitting, prosecutors accused Combs and an unidentified co-conspirator of kidnapping somebody at gunpoint in December 2011 so as to facilitate a break-in at one other individual’s residence. Two weeks later, prosecutors wrote, Combs set hearth to somebody’s automobile by slicing open its convertible high and dropping in a Molotov cocktail.
All of this, prosecutors say, was occurring behind the facade of Combs’ international music, life-style and clothes enterprise.
Combs was recognised as one of the crucial influential figures in hip-hop earlier than a flood of allegations emerged over the previous yr.
In November, Ventura filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into undesirable intercourse in drug-fueled settings.
The swimsuit was settled in sooner or later, however months later, CNN aired lodge safety footage exhibiting Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a flooring. After the video aired, Combs apologised, saying, “I used to be disgusted after I did it.”
The indictment refers back to the assault, with out naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a lodge safety staffer to remain mum about it.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, declined to remark Tuesday.
Combs and his attorneys denied related allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
