Music mogul Sean Combs, best known as Diddy, has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking by his ex-girlfriend Cassie.
Cassie, who sued under her legal name, Casandra Ventura, dated the famed hip-hop producer for about 11 years before they split in 2018. She filed her sex trafficking and sexual assault lawsuit against Combs on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Ventura’s lawsuit alleges that she “was held down by Mr. Combs and endured a decade of his violent behavior and disturbed demands,” referring to that period with him as “dark times” during which she was “trapped by Mr. Combs in a cycle of abuse,” according to a copy of the complaint obtained Thursday by The Times.
She accused him of raping her in her own home after she tried to leave him; physically attacking and injuring her; forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers while filming the encounters; running around with a firearm; introducing her to “a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse”; and requiring her “to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions.”
“He signed her to his label, Bad Boy Records, and within a few years, lured Ms. Ventura into an ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle, and into a romantic relationship with him — her boss, one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry, and a vicious, cruel, and controlling man nearly two decades her senior,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also names Diddy’s businesses, Bad Boy Entertainment and Bad Boy Records, among the defendants, as well as Epic Records and Combs Enterprises LLC.
Representatives for the Bad Boy Entertainment executive did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment.
However, in a statement to the New York Times, which first reported on the lawsuit, Diddy’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, said that his client “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations” and accused Ventura of being “persistent” in demanding more than $30 million from Diddy for the past six months.
He added that the lawsuit is “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a payday.”
This story is developing.
