Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office in New York said.
Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel on West 57th Street, a spokesman said. He was caught off guard by the arrest, according to a person familiar with the situation, who added that he had been staying at the hotel for several weeks.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams confirmed in a statement that on Monday night, federal agents arrested Combs based on a sealed indictment filed by the Southern District of New York.
“We expect to move forward to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Williams said.
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, expressed his disappointment in a statement. He said Combs, 54, cooperated with the investigation and “voluntarily located himself in New York last week pending these charges.”
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has spent the past 30 years building an empire, doting on his children and working to uplift the black community,” the statement read. . “He’s an imperfect person, but he’s not a criminal.”
“These are the actions of an innocent man who has nothing to hide and looks forward to clearing his name in court,” it added.
It was not immediately clear what charges Combs, the rapper turned music mogul, was arrested on.
Combs has faced a pipeline wave — one as recent as in last week — accusing him of sexual assault and misconduct since November, when ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura sued him in federal court, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse.
Ventura, who is better known by her stage name Cassie, was once signed to Combs’ Bad Boy record label. The two settled her lawsuit a day after she filed, without disclosing terms of the settlement. An attorney for Combs said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing. He previously denied the charges.
Since then, several others have sued, including Dawn Richardwho claimed he touched and threatened her when he was in her employ from 2005 to 2012 and that she saw him brutally beat Ventura. Combs vehemently denied the allegations in the lawsuits, saying they were “disparaging allegations” from people looking for “a quick payday.”
But in May, after CNN released hotel footage of Combs kicking, punching and throwing Ventura to the floor in a Los Angeles hallway in 2016, apologized with an Instagram video in which he said his behavior was “inexcusable” and that he had sought treatment. The video was later removed from his page.
Richard, who was a member of the girl group Danity Kane, which Combs created on the MTV reality competition “Making the Band,” and later of the group Diddy — Dirty Money, sued Combs last week.
An attorney said Combs was “shocked and disappointed” by Richard’s lawsuit, which, like Ventura’s complaint, portrays him as controlling and violent.
Ventura’s lawsuit included allegations of sex trafficking. She claimed he beat her frequently, forced her to have sex with male prostitutes — drug-fueled encounters Combs referred to as “freak offs” and were sometimes recorded — and that in 2018, as she tried to end their relationship, he entered forced his way into her house and raped her.
Richard said in her suit that she attended “drug-fueled parties” where guests had to hand over their phones. She also said she saw what she believed to be drunken underage girls being sexually assaulted by Combs and his guests.
In March, federal investigators searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles.
Investigators interviewed multiple people in connection with allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault and provocation and the distribution of illegal drugs and firearms, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News in March.
The warrant to search Combs’ property came from the Southern District of New York, NBC News reported.
Combs, who also goes by names like Puffy, Puff Daddy and Love, founded Bad Boy in the early 1990s. He is considered a hip-hop, fashion and media pioneer, having created the Sean John clothing line and launched the TV channel Revolt, which he sold his share in the summer.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, producer on Combs’ latest album, reportedly treatment in February that Combs engaged in unwanted sexual intercourse, forced him to hire prostitutes and pressured him to engage in sexual acts with them. Jones said he lived and traveled with Combs from September 2022 to November 2023, during which he recorded hours of video and audio of Combs, his staff and others “engaging in serious illegal activity.”
His attorneys, Rodney S. Diggs and Tyrone Blackburn, who also represent other Combs accusers, said Combs’ “long-awaited arrest” was “an important step toward justice for all of Mr. Combs’ victims.”
“We leave the criminal aspect of this case in the hands of the people and the justice system,” they said Monday night. “As far as the civil cases are concerned, we are biding our time for the facts to come out and to seek the justice our clients deserve. We also expect more victims to come forward. We knew this was coming. The evidence is very clear and it was only a matter of time .”
After the hotel video of Combs attacking Ventura was released, Howard University cut ties with him. In June, the school rescinded the honorary degree it had awarded him and disbanded a scholarship program in his name. That same month, Combs honored a request from New York City Mayor Eric Adams and returned his key to the city.
This month, Combs listed his Los Angeles home that was raided in March for $61.5 million.
