Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing additional counts related to sex trafficking, according to a superseding indictment filed this week.
Combs was hit with a three-count indictment in September that accused him of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York tacked on two additional counts to their indictment: another count of sex trafficking and another count of transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors allege the crimes occurred between 2021 and 2024.
The third superseding indictment against Combs comes as the federal trial moves closer to a court date, with jury selection slated to begin May 5 in a New York courtroom.
Combs pleaded not guilty to the previous indictment and will be arraigned on the new counts April 25.
On Friday, his lawyers issued a statement, “These are not new accusers, these are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, involved in consensual relationships. This was their private sex life.”
Combs, who is being held in a federal correctional facility in Brooklyn, N.Y., is accused of abusing three women and being the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy from 2004 to 2024.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, is accused of using his business empire to coerce victims into days-long sex gatherings known as “freak-offs.”
The indictment alleges Combs and his associates transported sex workers across state lines for the encounters, which were allegedly recorded at times.
Some of the victims, the indictment alleges, were given IV fluids to recover.
In court documents, prosecutors allege the 55-year-old mogul used drugs, violence and coercion to force women to participate in the freak-offs. Prosecutors allege Combs’ circle of employees and confidants helped organize and clean up the events, and to keep them secret from the public and law enforcement.
Combs’ close circle was allegedly involved in hiring sex workers, transporting them to the events, and supplying hotel rooms during the gatherings with items such as cash and baby oil.
Prosecutors have not ruled out charging others tied to their investigation.
“Combs did not do this all on his own,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in announcing the charges last year. “He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.”
Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Combs, has dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous” and countered that federal prosecutors were alleging Combs’ “former girlfriends were not girlfriends at all but were prostitutes.”
The indictment alleges that Combs “used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims, including but not limited to three female victims,” to engage in commercial sex acts.
An initial grand jury indictment against Combs listed a “Victim-1,” whose allegations mirrored those of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a singer and former girlfriend of Combs who sued him in 2023. Combs settled that lawsuit. The expanded indictment refers to “Victim-2” and “Victim-3” but does not reveal their identities.
The indictment also refers to a 2016 incident in which Combs is accused of dangling a woman off a balcony. That allegation resembles one made last year in a lawsuit by Bryana Bongolan. The suits say Bongolan was in Ventura’s apartment asleep when Combs arrived and banged on the door. Once inside, the lawsuit claims, he grabbed her and held her over a banister.
Combs is also facing several lawsuits from alleged victims who accuse him of sexual abuse when they were minors. The federal charges against Combs make no mention of minors in the indictment, and Combs, through his attorneys, has denied the allegations.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
