What are the allegations made against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs?

Sean “Diddy” Combs, a rapper and music mogul credited with helping launch the careers of some of the biggest stars in recent years, is now facing multiple civil lawsuits accusing him of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and rape.

Combs, formerly known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and a host of other names, has undergone a myriad of reinventions since the start of his career – but has since entered a new and unwelcome “era.”

Federal agents with US Homeland Security raided two of the rapper’s houses in Los Angeles and Miami on 25 March as he faces a string of varying accusations.

Combs, 54, has strongly denied all of the allegations against him. His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as money grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.”

The entertainer has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of any crime.

The new lawsuits come months after Combs’s former partner, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a lawsuit against him in November. She accused him of raping her in 2018, beating her, demanding she carry a firearm to “make her uncomfortable and demonstrate how dangerous he is” and forcing her into “unwanted sexual encounters with male sex workers.”

Ms Ventura’s lawsuit against Combs was settled a day after she filed it for an undisclosed amount of money.

The slew of allegations in lawsuits against Combs date as far back as the 1990s, when he founded his own record label, Bad Boy Records.

Lawsuits against the rapper began on 16 November 2023 when he was sued by singer and dancer Cassie, his former partner, who alleged years of abuse.

It was filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act, just before it expired. This act offered a one-year window for adult victims of sexual assault to come forward with civil claims regardless of the statute of limitations.

R&B singer Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging that she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Combs on many occasions over 10 years.

Her lawsuit claimed that Combs brought the singer into his “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle” not long after she met him, and signed her to his label in 2005 when she was just 19 and he was 37.

Ms Ventura said that the pattern of abuse began as soon as their relationship started and that, as she was trying to end it in 2018, he forced himself into her Los Angeles home and raped her.

The lawsuit against Combs was settled a day after she filed it for an undisclosed amount of money.