Federal prosecutors in New York have added two charges of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution to their indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The new charges are part of a superseding indictment, according to documents filed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. This is the third time the indictment has been amended.
In September, Combs was accused in a three-count indictment of having used his sprawling business empire to abuse, threaten and traffic women in order to “fulfill his sexual desires” and protect his reputation. He was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
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Last month, prosecutors accused Combs in an amended indictment of forcing employees to work long hours and threatening to punish those who did not assist in his two-decade sex trafficking scheme.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and denied all the allegations. His trial starts next month.
The original indictment referred only to a Victim-1, whose accusations aligned closely with those of Combs’ former girlfriend Casandra Ventura. Her 2023 civil lawsuit, which she and Combs settled privately within a day without him admitting any wrongdoing, preceded the criminal inquiry. Ventura alleged in her lawsuit that Combs forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched, masturbated and recorded them.
The indictment was amended in January to include two additional females, Victim-2 and Victim-3, whose identities have not been made public. That indictment also included an allegation that Combs had dangled a person over an apartment balcony.
The latest indictment focuses on Victim-2 and alleges that from about 2021 to about 2024, Combs used force, fraud or coercion to recruit, entice, harbor, transport and maintain Victim-2 and willfully caused the woman to engage in commercial sex acts.
Combs is also accused in the indictment of transporting individuals across state lines with the intent to engage in prostitution, including Victim-2 and commercial sex workers on multiple occasions. The latest indictment increases the total number of charges Combs faces from three to five.
The indictment contains allegations that Combs orchestrated elaborate sex parties he called freak offs that included the distribution of drugs and involved male sex workers. Combs is accused of having “arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded” the freak offs, which the indictment alleges “occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers.”
Prosecutors on Friday filed a 24-page motion, parts of which were redacted, seeking to protect the identities of three of its four witnesses, identified as Victim-2, Victim-3 and Victim-4. Prosecutors asked that the three women be referred to by pseudonyms during the trial and that their names be withheld from the media and the public. The filing says Victim-1, who is widely believed to be Ventura, is prepared to testify under her own name.
“Permitting these measures will prevent unnecessary public disclosure of the victims’ identities, and the harassment from the media and others, undue embarrassment, and other adverse consequences, that would almost certainly follow if these women were forced to reveal their true names publicly at trial,” the filing states, adding that the women’s identities are already known to Combs and will be known to the jury.
It also explains why the women want to be anonymous, including to protect their and their families’ privacy, to minimize their humiliation “when testifying about such deeply personal topics” and to “prevent adverse impact” on their ability to earn an income.
In a statement released Friday in response to the new charges, Combs’ legal team said: “These are not new accusers, these are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, involved in consensual relationships. This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.”
