Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: What’s a ‘freak off’, and what are the charges against him?

Two years ago, rap musician and mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs threw a lavish 53rd birthday party at his $61m mansion in Beverly Hills.

A host of stars lined up to toast his career, with a guest list that included Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Mary J Blige, Kehlani, Tinashe, Chris Brown and Machine Gun Kelly.

The party coincided with his 30th year in the music industry – three decades in which he formed his own entertainment empire and changed the sound of hip-hop, both as an artist and a producer for the likes of Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and The Notorious B.I.G.

Fast-forward to 2024, and his career is on the ropes.

In a case filed in New York, the star has been accused of kidnapping, drugging and coercing women into sexual activities, sometimes through the use of firearms and threats of violence.

The same Los Angeles mansion that hosted his birthday party was raided by police in March. There, officers seized supplies that they say were intended for use in orgies known as “freak offs”, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

Mr Combs has denied all the charges, entering a not guilty plea on Tuesday, 17 September.

The court case comes after a year in which the musician has faced lawsuits from a number of women.

Here is how the allegations against Mr Combs have stacked up.

Casandra Ventura, a singer and model known as Cassie, was signed to Mr Combs’ record label and dated him for more than a decade.

But in a civil lawsuit, she said the mogul had used his position of power to “set the groundwork” for a “manipulative and coercive romantic and sexual relationship”.

Her lawsuit included graphic descriptions of violent abuse, alleging that Mr Combs “regularly beat and kicked Ms Ventura, leaving black eyes, bruises, and blood”.

She described parties known as “freak offs” – drug-fuelled, days-long sexual performances – which Mr Combs allegedly coerced women into, and filmed for his own pleasure.

Ms Ventura also accused the musician of sexual abuse and rape, and claimed that many of these incidents were witnessed by his “tremendously loyal network” who “were not willing to do anything meaningful” to stop the violence.

The lawsuit also alleged that Mr Combs destroyed a car belonging to US rapper Kid Cudi, to dissuade him from dating her.

Mr Combs strenuously denied the allegations and accused Ms Ventura of extortion.

They settled the case for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed in New York, with Mr Combs maintaining his innocence.

In the weeks after settling Cassie’s lawsuit, Mr Combs was accused of sexual assault dating back to 1991 by multiple women.

One lawsuit was filed anonymously by a woman who claimed Mr Combs and another man had coerced her into sex.

In a second, Joi Dickerson-Neal accused the star of drugging and sexually assaulting her when she was a college student in 1991. She also claimed he filmed the attack and showed it to other people without her consent.

A third woman, Liza Gardner, filed court papers accusing Mr Combs and another man of raping her and her friend more than 30 years ago, when she was 16.

Ms Gardner also alleged that Mr Combs had turned violent days after the attack, choking her so hard that she passed out.

In the lawsuit, she said Mr Combs had become irate while trying to track down her friend, because he was worried she would inform “the girl he was with at the time”.

The lawsuits all came shortly before the expiration of the New York Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily allowed people who said they had been sexually abused to file claims, even after the statute of limitations had expired.

Mr Combs denied all the allegations, and his spokesperson called the lawsuits a “money grab”.

Another woman sued in December, claiming she was “sex trafficked” and “gang raped” by Mr Combs, former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre and another man in 2003, when she was 17.

In court papers, the woman, known only as Jane Doe, alleged she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” before the attack and was left in so much pain that she could barely stand or remember how she got home.

In response, Mr Combs said he “did not do any of the awful things being alleged”, while Mr Pierre said the “disgusting allegations” were “false and a desperate attempt for financial gain”.

On 6 December, Mr Combs responded to the flurry of lawsuits with a statement on his Instagram page.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” he wrote. “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.

“Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”

Music producer Rodney Jones Jr, who produced nine tracks on 2023’s The Love Album, sued Mr Combs in February 2024, accusing the star of making unwanted sexual contact and forcing him to hire prostitutes and participate in sex acts with them.

In court papers filed in New York, Mr Jones also claimed that Mr Combs tried to “groom” him into having sex with another man, telling him it was “a normal practice in the music industry”.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Shawn Holley, called Mr Jones “nothing more than a liar” and described his claims as “pure fiction” that could be discredited by “overwhelming, indisputable proof”.

CCTV footage emerged showing Mr Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

The pictures, broadcast by CNN, showed a man pushing Ms Ventura to the floor and kicking her while she was on the ground. He later attempted to drag her by her shirt and throw an object at her.

A day later, Mr Combs apologised, saying: “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

Ms Ventura later posted a statement highlighting the lifelong impact of domestic violence. “It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become,” she wrote.

Model and actress Crystal McKinney accused Mr Combs of drugging her and forcing her to perform oral sex in the bathroom of a New York City recording studio in 2003.

Two days later, Mr Combs was sued again by April Lampros, who alleged four instances of sexual assault between 1995 and about 2000.

Ms Lampros claimed she met the musician in 1994 while a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and that an initially romantic relationship “quickly turned into an aggressive, coercive, and abusive relationship based on sex”.

In one incident, she claimed the star forced her to take ecstasy and have sex with his then-girlfriend.

Former adult film star Adria English claimed she was “groomed into sex trafficking over time” in a number of events between 2004 and 2009 at Mr Combs’s star-studded parties.

His lawyer Jonathan Davis responded: “No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone.”

Mr Combs failed to attend a virtual hearing for a lawsuit filed against him by Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a Michigan inmate who claimed the star drugged and sexually assaulted him at a party in Detroit in 1997.

The no-show led to a default judgment against Mr Combs, who was ordered to pay Mr Caredello-Smith $100m (£75m).

The judgment was later set aside, after the musician’s lawyers filed an appeal.

Dawn Richard, a former singer in Mr Combs’ girl group project Danity Kane, filed a suit against the star.

The singer, who later joined Mr Combs in the band Diddy Dirty Money, alleged that the musician sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions by touching her body, as well as verbally abusing and overworking her.

The star was arrested in a Manhattan hotel room after a grand jury indictment.

His lawyer said the star had co-operated with authorities, and voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the charges.

“These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court,” he added.

In an appearance at the US District Court in New York, Mr Combs was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

In an indictment that was unsealed at the same time, prosecutors alleged that he also engaged in kidnapping, forced labour, bribery and other crimes.

They described him as the head of a criminal enterprise that abused women, using threats of violence to force them into participating in drug-fuelled orgies with male prostitutes.

These “freak offs” were “elaborate and produced sex performances” and were highly organised parties, prosecutors said.

Mr Combs’ associates allegedly booked hotel suites, recruited sex workers and distributed drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone to coerce partygoers into sex and keep them “obedient”.

His staff allegedly arranged travel for the victims and organised the supply of intravenous fluids to help them recover from the parties, which sometimes lasted for days.

Prosecutors also alleged that Mr Combs taped the “freak offs” and would use the footage to pressure his victims into silence.

If convicted, the musician faces a sentence of 15 years up to life in prison.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, declared his client’s innocence, and described the “freak offs” as consensual.

“Is it sex trafficking?” he asked. “Not if everybody wants to be there.”

Mr Combs pleaded not guilty to the charges.

But he was denied bail after prosecutors argued that he posed “a significant risk” to the trial, reporting that he had “already tried to obstruct the government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of events”.

The judge cited the star’s anger issues and history of substance abuse as reasons for keeping him detained until the trial.

“My concern is that this is a crime that happens behind closed doors,” he said.

Mr Combs’ lawyers appealed the decision, offering to place the star under the watch of a round-the-clock private security team.

However Judge Andrew L Carter Jr said that, even under those terms, Mr Combs could still use employees to contact witnesses.

He will be detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center until his trial.

No date has been set, but a conference hearing regarding the proceedings is due on Tuesday, 24 September.

Combs’ next court date is on Wednesday, 9 October, where his lawyers will again appeal the decision to refuse him bail.

Combs was moved to a special unit at the Metropolitan Detention Centre, separate from the general prison population.

Around the same time, he was served with a new lawsuit – from a woman who claimed Combs and his bodyguard had drugged, bound and violently raped her in 2001, and later showed a video of the attack to others.

In a news conference, Thalia Graves said the “lasting effects” of the assault had created “a cycle of suffering from which it is hard to break free”; adding that she felt “worthless, isolated and sometimes responsible” for what had happened to her.

At the time of writing, Combs’ lawyers had not responded to the allegations.

A lawyer said more than 100 people plan to sue Combs for sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation.

Tony Buzbee said he was representing 120 people, half of whom were men, and 25 of whom were minors – the first time Mr Combs has been accused of sexually abusing children. One was aged nine at the time of the alleged assault.

Mr Buzbee said his firm was working to vet another 100 cases.

Mr Combs’ lawyer said the rapper “emphatically and categorically” denied the allegations, saying they were “false and defamatory”.

Six lawsuits were filed in New York with accusations from two unnamed women and four unnamed men by Mr Buzbee.

One of the accusers said he was 16 when he attended one of the rapper’s parties in the Hamptons in 1998. In the lawsuit, he said the rapper ordered him to undress while they were discussing the teen breaking into the music industry.

Another lawsuit filed by an unnamed woman accused Mr Combs of raping her at a hotel party after they met at a photoshoot.

Mr Combs’ legal team dismissed the lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity.”

“Mr Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process,” his attorneys said in a statement, adding “Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”