By Seyi Babalola
American hip-hop businessman, Sean Combs was detained on Monday in Manhattan, according to numerous American media reports.
Combs, widely known as P. Diddy, was arrested after a grand jury indicted him. NBC News stated that he was apprehended in a hotel lobby.
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced his arrest in a post on X.
“Earlier this evening, federal agents arrested Sean Combs, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.
“While the charges of the indictment remain unclear, a statement from his legal team described Combs as an imperfect person but not a criminal.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” RollingStone reported.
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person but he Is not a criminal.
“To his credit, Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Combs has been under FBI investigation since March of this year. His legal woes began in November, when his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, often known as Cassie, filed a lawsuit accusing him of years of sexual and physical abuse.
Although the music businessman resolved the complaint with Ventura within a day, other women have filed further claims alleging sexual and physical abuse, as well as sex trafficking.
On March 25, federal officials raided Combs’ residences in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida. His electronic equipment was allegedly seized after he was detained at a Miami-area airport.
The New York Times stated that officials made no statements at the time, but a federal official indicated the probe was at least in part about a human trafficking investigation.
Although he rejected the charges in the lawsuits, and his attorneys called the raids “a gross overuse of military-level force,” Combs returned to the headlines in May when CNN aired a hotel security tape showing Combs violently assaulting Ventura. Combs eventually apologized in a video, but the harm to his reputation appeared irreversible.
He sold his position in Revolt, the media firm he created, and his ownership in DeLeón Tequila, a joint venture with the alcohol corporation Diageo.
A New York charter school network has ceased its collaboration with him. In addition, his house in the Holmby Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles, where federal officials conducted a raid in March, was advertised for $61.5 million this month.
