Monday was not a good day for billionaire Sean “Diddy” Combs—once one of the most highly respected producers in hip-hop and one of the most successful Black entrepreneurs to enter the game—as feds from multiple agencies raided two of his homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
Two of Diddy’s homes were raided as part of a federal investigation led by the Southern District of New York into alleged human trafficking. Homeland Security officers from at least three locations took part in the raid, as well as other law enforcement members.
“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners,” the spokesperson said. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
Diddy’s lavish $40 million dollar home in Holmby Hills in Los Angeles was raided. Aerial footage from KTLA in Los Angeles showed multiple SWAT vehicles descending on his house. It boasts 17,000 square feet and has a 3,000 square-foot guesthouse, and Los Angeles Times reported that it has a theater, a gym, a wine room, and an underwater swimming tunnel connecting to an underground grotto.
His other home—Emilio and Gloria Estefan’s former home on Star Island in Miami Beach, Florida, worth $35 million—was also raided. Combs, 54, was in the Miami area when the raids were taking place, according to law enforcement agents who obtained a warrant for his arrest Investigators seized the phones of Combs, as he was scheduled to depart for a vacay to the Bahamas.
In December 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Combs by a Canadian woman identified only as Jane Doe, who says she was sex-trafficked and gang raped in 2003 when she was 17 and in the 11th grade. She says two of her associates were also victims, and she is accusing him of running a “sex trafficking scheme.”
The lawsuit names Combs, former Bad Boy Entertainment president Harve Pierre and an unnamed third defendant, claiming Pierre and the third unnamed defendant approached the girl at a lounge in Detroit, Michigan, where Pierre allegedly told her he was “best friends” with Combs and dialed him up.
With photographic evidence, the lawsuit alleges Pierre and the unnamed defendant convinced the girl to take a private jet to Combs’s studio in New York City, where she alleges she was drugged up, and gang raped by all three defendants.
Jane Doe is the fourth person to file a lawsuit accusing Combs of sexual assault. An earlier complaint, for instance was made on Nov. 16, 2023, when the producer’s former girlfriend, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, filed a lawsuit against Combs, accusing him of sex trafficking and sexual assault.
Since the allegations, Diddy has stepped down as chairman of Revolt, a music-oriented digital cable television network founded by the rapper and producer, which he founded about 10 years ago.
Combs took to social media on Dec. 6, 2023, to denounce the allegations against him and defend himself, writing in a post on IG and Twitter, “Enough is enough.”
“Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday,” he said. “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.”
Who is Diddy?
Diddy’s downfall is epic, given his prior successes. As founder of Bad Boy Records, which peaked at $100 million in value, Combs is best known for discovering and transforming The Notorious B.I.G., Usher, Mary J. Blige, rapper-turned-preacher Ma$e, and many other prolific artists. He won three of 13 Grammy Award nominations. He moved into fashion in 1998, and was brand ambassador for Cîroc vodka up until last year when his legal troubles caught up with him.
Changing his name numerous times, including Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and other names, Combs had multiple no. 1 albums and singles as an artist or featured artist. His ode to Notorious B.I.G. sampling Sting, “I’ll Be Missing You,” spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2022, Combs planned to launch what was billed as the world’s largest Black-owned cannabis brand with the $185 million purchase of existing licensed cannabis operations in three states, but the deal collapsed in 2023.
Diddy’s allegations come amid the fanfare of Quiet on Set on Max, a documentary exposing the dark underside of Nickelodeon, with allegations of multiple sex crimes involving the cast of All That and other shows on the network.