SEAN Combs has been linked to a series of lurid allegations from ‘Tupac’s assassination’ to sex abuse claims.
Here, we look back at some of the most shocking scandals surrounding the rapper also known as Diddy following this week’s raid.
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The music mogul’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami were searched on Monday by federal agents alongside Department of Homeland Security Investigators and local law enforcement officials.
However, it’s not yet clear whether the raid is related to any allegations raised in previous lawsuits.
Combs, 54, whose net worth is estimated at $1 billion, has never been convicted of a serious crime.
He has, however, “faced legal action or settlement payouts more than four dozen times over a career spanning four decades as a rapper, producer and mogul,” according to court documents reviewed by NBC News.
CONTROVERSIES
1991
In December 1991, Combs – who was then better known as Puff Daddy – helped promote a celebrity basketball game and concert at the City College of New York.
Nine people died and at least 29 others were injured when the crowd tried to push its way into the Harlem basement gymnasium, reported the Daily Beast.
The gym had a capacity of 2,730 people, but up to 5,000 people showed up, according to Rolling Stone.
Combs was later criticized in a city government report for allegedly failing to hire enough security.
He was also accused of employing inexperienced guards for the event in a 67-page report by then-New York City Mayor David Dinkins’ administration.
Since then, he has settled numerous lawsuits initiated by relatives of those who died as a result of the stampede.
1995
On September 23, 1995, Jai Hassan-Jamal Robles was fatally shot at an Atlanta nightclub.
Robles was a friend and security guard for Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
Recent lawsuits against Diddy
Diddy was hit with a wave of lawsuits in late 2023 and early 2024 with allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault. He has denied all claims against him.
- Cassie, Diddy’s longtime girlfriend, sued him in November 2023, claiming she endured “a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” until their relationship ended in 2018. Diddy and Cassie settled the suit the day after it was filed.
- Diddy was hit with two more lawsuits a week later. Joi Dickerson accused Diddy of drugging and raping her and filming the attack when she was a 19-year-old college student in January 1991.
- A second accuser in a separate lawsuit claimed that Diddy and another man sexually assaulted her and a friend in 1990 or 1991 then showed up at her apartment and beat her several days later.
- Diddy was sued again in December by a woman who claimed he and two men gang-raped her in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
- In February 2024, Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones, who helped produce Diddy’s most recent album, claimed that the mogul sexually harassed, drugged, and threatened him from September 2022 to November 2023 as they worked together.
Law enforcement sources regarded Robles’ death “as the primary catalyst for a bicoastal feud during the 1990s between New York-based Combs and Knight,” reported the Los Angeles Times.
Knight reportedly held Combs responsible for the fatality, according to Rolling Stone.
Combs’s then attorneys, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Ben Branfman, said in 2001, “Mr. Combs had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the incident in 1995.”
1996
Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed nearly 30 years ago.
On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was in a BMW driven by Suge Knight.
They were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.
Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25.
The U.S. Sun reported at the start of this year that Combs’ name was dragged into claims of serious organized crime, running with ruthless Los Angeles gangsters and accused of wanting Knight and Shakur murdered, according to court papers.
In a secret, two-and-a-half hour police interview obtained by The U.S. Sun, Tupac murder suspect Duane “Keefe D” Davis boasts about Diddy allegedly offering him $1 million for the rapper’s assassination.
Prosecutors decided to submit the tape as evidence despite the legal complexity of its admission.
Keefe maintains he is not guilty of Tupac’s murder, which carries a potential life sentence if convicted.
A rep and lawyer for Diddy did not reply to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
Diddy has previously dismissed suggestions that he was involved in Tupac’s death as “nonsense.”
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1998
Combs was sentenced to participate in a one-day anger management class, said MTV.
This followed an attack in New York on music executive Steve Stoute.
At the time, Stoute was Nas’ manager.
“You have a very interesting history. Let’s hope we never meet again,” Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Martin Murphy told Combs during the two-minute proceeding.
1999
Combs was acquitted on all charges in relation to a Club New York shooting, in which three people were shot.
He had been accused of criminal possession of a weapon while at the venue with then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and the rapper Shyne, NBC News reported.
Shyne was convicted in 2001 on two counts of assault, reckless endangerment, and gun possession.
Combs declined to comment at the time.
2014
The singer played down reports that he and Drake were in an alleged altercation at a Miami club, reported the Toronto Sun.
“I didn’t do nothing to Drake. Drake is my friend,” he told a radio show.
2023
More recently, he has been accused of sexual abuse and assault in lawsuits by several women, including his ex, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Combs has denied all claims against him, adding that he is innocent, while claiming that his accusers were seeking “a quick payday.”
In November, Combs’ protege and R&B singer, Cassie, sued him.
She alleged that she had endured “a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” until their relationship ended in 2018.
Diddy and Cassie settled the suit the day after it was filed.
“I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,” the rapper said in a December statement.
Also at the end of last year, a new lawsuit accused Combs of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl in 2003.
The rap mogul declared that “enough is enough” in an Instagram post.
“For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” read the statement, written in caps.
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2024
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
“We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies,” Combs’s attorney, Shawn Holley, said of those accusations.
RAID
The U.S. Sun has contacted the rapper’s lawyer and his representative for further comment following this week’s raid.
However, it’s not clear whether Combs was the target of the investigation – part of an ongoing sex trafficking probe, reported news agency, the Associated Press.
DIDDY RESPONDS TO RAID
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences.
“There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated,” said Aaron Dyer, Diddy’s attorney, in a statement to the U.S. Sun.
There was a gross overuse of military-level force.
“Mr. Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities.
“Despite media speculation, neither Mr. Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested nor has their ability to travel been restricted in any way.
“This unprecedented ambush – paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence – leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.
“There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations.
“Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name,” Dyer added.
Diddy is a three-time Grammy winner has worked with a slew of top-tier artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans, and 112.
He’s also appeared in films including Get Him to the Greek and Monster’s Ball.
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