Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Escaping Diddy: Cassie Ventura's Fight to Reclaim Her Name

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. Cassie Ventura could be preparing for a career comeback following the bombshell civil lawsuit she filed against her ex, Sean Diddy Combs. The new report about Cassie's career comes after Combs' arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. I take a look at how Cassie says Combs held her career back. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Cassie Ventura may be planning a big comeback. Ventura was a promising young singer when she signed to Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records back in 2006.

Starting point is 00:00:43 But sadly, she's become more well-known for the abuse she claims to have suffered at the hands of her ex, Sean Combs, than her music. Her debut album, Cassie, was a hit, and the critics even praised it. Her second album was expected in 2008, but it never came. She released some singles here and there, but Connecticut Fever, that never hit the shelves. Cassie had signed a 10-album deal with Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment, but only one album was released. Her career, we now know, according to her bombshell civil lawsuit, was likely derailed and put on hold by a decade of abuse she says she suffered at the hands of Sean Combs. And it's been nearly a year since Ventura filed that bombshell civil lawsuit.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Part of it read, over the years that Mr. Combs abused Ms. Ventura physically and sexually, she again and again tried to escape his tight hold over her life. Every time she hid, Mr. Combs' vast network of corporations and affiliated entities found her, and those who worked for Mr. Combs' companies implored her to return to him. Many went as far to explicitly state that her failure to return to Mr. Combs would hinder her success in the entertainment industry. Ventura had recorded music during her relationship with Combs, but mostly singles were released. Ventura's suit said after she tried to leave Combs following that now infamous 2016 incident captured by hotel security cameras where Combs actually chased Ventura down a hallway and

Starting point is 00:02:12 beat her, her music was used as leverage to get her to come back to Combs. The suit said after this, Ms. Ventura left her home in Comstock and went to hide away at a friend's home in Florida. James Cruz, president of Bad Boy Management, tracked Ms. Ventura down and told her that her single would not be released if she did not answer Mr. Combs' phone calls. The suit continued. A woman who worked at Sony Music reached out to her with a similar ultimatum concerning her record. Incredibly, Mr. Combs even convinced one of his attorneys to call Ms. Ventura at this time. This lawyer told Ms. Ventura that it's in your best interest to call back. Each time Ms. Ventura tried to run away, Mr. Combs and his powerful network would force her back to him. Ventura's

Starting point is 00:02:58 lawsuit claimed last November that a lot of her time was actually consumed by setting up freak offs, the elaborate sex performances with male sex workers that Sean Combs staged. Ventura's suit claimed she was tasked with actually hiring these sex workers. Those freak-offs are the basis for the sex trafficking charges filed against Sean Combs. The U.S. attorney described them when announcing the indictment. As alleged, Combs used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers, some of whom he transported or caused

Starting point is 00:03:34 to be transported over state lines. Combs allegedly planned and controlled the sex performances, which he called freak-offs. And he often electronically recorded them. The freak-offs sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant. As alleged when Combs didn't get his way, he was violent.

Starting point is 00:04:08 And he subjected victims of physical, emotional, and verbal abuse so that they would participate in the freak-offs. And that Combs hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times by their hair. Hey, Crime Fix viewers. I want to tell you guys about Wondry's awesome new podcast, American Scandal. You can listen right now and explore the biggest political corruption scheme in U.S. history in the latest season, Teapot Dome. Using vivid and immersive storytelling, American Scandal retraces the bribes,

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Starting point is 00:05:08 Cabinet. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can binge the season American Scandal Teapot Dome early and ad free right now at Wondery dot FM slash law and crime fix. Ventura described in her suit being forced to pour oil on herself during the freak offs and being given drugs to keep her engaged in these events, which were also called FOs. Ventura also described several instances of being beaten by Combs. In September of 2018, after dating Combs for a decade, Ventura described Combs raping her after she met him for dinner. She said she actually believed they were meeting to discuss ending their relationship. But then she said he forced his way into her home.

Starting point is 00:05:57 Her suit said, Mr. Combs forced himself into her apartment and tried to kiss Ms. Ventura. She told him to stop and attempted to push him away. Mr. Combs then forcibly pulled off Ms. Ventura's clothing and unbuckled his belt. Then Ventura claimed Combs raped her and their relationship ended for good. Last November, she released this statement after filing her civil suit. After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships. With the expiration of New York's Adult Survivors Act fast approaching, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life. As I mentioned earlier, Combs settled that civil

Starting point is 00:06:40 suit within a day, one day. Now, the DailyMail.com reports Cassie is planning a big comeback. Cassie is considering making a comeback to music now that Diddy is behind bars and some of the executives who were his lackeys are resigning. She couldn't have imagined her career would have been stalled in the way it was when her first album came out. But she has so many unreleased records that she wants to release if the timing and business is right. Now, I reached out to Cassie's lawyers and they're not commenting on this report. Meanwhile, Sean Combs' lawyer has maintained he is innocent of the criminal charges and that the sex between Combs and Ventura was consensual. His resolve is the same. He believes he's innocent.

Starting point is 00:07:22 I believe he's innocent. And we're going to fight this case with all of our might until we don't have to fight any longer. I want to bring in Nima Rahmani. He's an entertainment attorney based in Los Angeles. Nima, your thoughts on this report from the Daily Mail that Cassie Ventura is considering launching a comeback. It would be an amazing comeback, both for her personally and professionally. Obviously, her relationship with Combs ended up derailing her career, and obviously she was the victim of domestic violence and sexual assault. But now there's a lot of attention on her, and she may be able to parlay that into a comeback. She hasn't released music in quite some time, well over a decade,

Starting point is 00:08:02 so she'll have to get back into the swing of things, but it's certainly possible given how much attention there is on the Diddy case. It really sounds like she has a lot of music cataloged that was never released. And this was held over her, according to her civil suit that was filed last November. So talk to me about how that was possibly used, according to her, as leverage by Sean Combs.

Starting point is 00:08:29 I mean, that is so stunning to me that her career was held back, according to her, by him because she's too busy doing freak-offs and things like that. Well, there's no question that Cassie met Combs through Bad Boy Records, and that's how that relationship started. And we know that Combs used whatever he could to maintain control over people.

Starting point is 00:08:56 It could be something like a video of the freak-offs. There are allegations that he recorded the freak-offs for sexual pleasure, but also to control the participants. So I wouldn't be surprised if Cassie's allegations are true, that she wanted to further her career, and that's why she ended up getting involved with Combs. Obviously, it evolved into something else, something romantic, and then criminal. But to the extent that Combs could control Cassie by controlling her music, and we know that he was very powerful in the music industry. That's consistent with the M.O. and his allegations that have been raised by the other victims. Yeah. And the timeline seems to be that, you know, she signs this deal. It was a 10 album deal. Nima, this is what shocks me about this. A 10 album deal that she signed in 2006.

Starting point is 00:09:42 One album was released and maybe then some singles were sprinkled within there. She was working on a second album. That album never came out. I mean, is that common in the music industry that you would sign a deal like that for 10 records and then only one is released? 10 albums is a lot. It's certainly possible that an artist doesn't fulfill the deal. Obviously, these agreements, they're not public, but we've seen a lot of discussion of this from Taylor Swift and her trying to get out of and get her masters. So when you're a young artist, you're so happy to sign a record deal. you'll essentially sign anything. And then as artists, you know, become bigger and they want to end up controlling their music, they oftentimes regret signing those deals.

Starting point is 00:10:32 So multi-album deals are common. Not fulfilling the deal, less common. But again, when an artist wants to sign to a label, usually they'll sign anything that the company puts in front of them. Her lawsuit said that she basically worked out getting out of her contract with Bad Boy Records. So she hasn't put anything out since she was with Bad Boy Records. She had to get out of the deal, obviously. She then gets married and she has children. She has filed this lawsuit. She's been to rehab, she says, according to some statements she's put out since filing that suit. So would that be hard for her to take music she made when she was with Bad Boy and then maybe put that out now?

Starting point is 00:11:19 So when it comes to music, there's three different components in terms of the intellectual property. The first is the composition itself, and that's owned by the artist. So Cassie owns that. Then it's the musical composition, which means that she could perform music live and the record label doesn't own that. What the company owns is what we call the master, which is the original recording. So what's played on Spotify or Apple Music or even on the radio, that's owned by the record company. So the question is, you know, who owns the music now when she's out of the contract? And is Cassie able to produce new masters or new

Starting point is 00:11:57 recordings with another record label now that apparently the party seemed to have walked away and rescinded that original agreement. One of the things that really stuns me, Nima, in the lawsuit that she filed is this discussion of other people in Sean Combs's orbit, including somebody at Sony, saying to her when she tried to leave him because of the abuse she claimed she was suffering at his hands, saying, you know what? I know you're trying to leave him, but it probably would really help you if you called him back. You maybe need to call him back and go back to him because this could really impact your record, your single being released. That to me is stunning. I know Sean Combs is a powerful, powerful guy. Does that surprise you that somebody at Sony Records would do that? It doesn't surprise me, Anjanette. And we've seen rich and powerful men take advantage of

Starting point is 00:12:52 young women for decades here in Hollywood. And of course, it started in the movie industry, in the casting couch. And there's a reason Harvey Weinstein had access to so many women. He was powerful. He could make or break their movie career. And we've heard many actresses testify to that effect. And the same thing applies in the music industry. If you want to get ahead in the music industry and you get on the wrong side of someone like Sean Puffy Combs, that may potentially derail your music career. So the fact that there's individuals at Sony that may have said that, that does not surprise me in my experience here in Hollywood. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:32 really the sex trafficking, the freak offs, all of this stuff has really gotten the attention in this case because of how outrageous it sounds. And it's, you know, the illegality of it. But this was also her civil suit. It was a workplace harassment, kind of a hostile work environment type of lawsuit. There was that component of this lawsuit. Sean Combs and his companies settled that lawsuit within a day. But that's something that really hasn't gotten a lot of attention. The fact that not only was she his employee or his boyfriend, she was his employee. And so she was impacted negatively, she claims, through this. Oh, no question. And we've seen this time and time again. I don't represent any plaintiffs against Diddy, but we have plenty of lawsuits against other musicians. We have all the plaintiffs that are suing Lizzo.

Starting point is 00:14:26 We have the majority of the cases against E, formerly known as Kanye West, who sued Jason Derulo. There's so many examples in the music industry where an artist uses his or her power to do something unlawful in the workplace. It can be sexual harassment. It can be discrimination. It can be sexual harassment. It can be discrimination. It can be wrongful termination. There's such a disparity in power, Anjanette, that oftentimes the artists, they think they're God and they think that the employees should be lucky to be there

Starting point is 00:14:56 and they're easily replaceable. Well, obviously that's not consistent with the law in any state. So we do see a lot of employment violations in the music industry. Well, it is very disturbing. You know, just reading that lawsuit is just really awful. And hearing the things that she said she went through. So, Nima, do you predict that she indeed makes this comeback? You know, because the quote in the Daily Mail says it's really all about timing and whether or not, you know, the climate would be right for it. Do you predict that she will indeed try to make a comeback? I think the climate is indeed right. And the Daily Mail and other outlets are reporting it.

Starting point is 00:15:33 So I likely think she's going to make that attempt, either at someone from her PR team or someone in her inner circle that's putting these stories out there. You know, the question is, you know, can she come back from all the abuse that she suffered after so many years and really dedicate her time and effort away from her family? Because this is not easy to make a comeback like this. I think she can. I think she should. I support her. I support all victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. So I'm definitely rooting for her and hopefully she can make it

Starting point is 00:16:05 like she should have, frankly, a decade or two ago. Well, it will be interesting to watch it unfold and we'll keep an eye on it. Nima Rahmani, as always, thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Escaping Diddy: Cassie Ventura's Fight to Reclaim Her Name

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Escaping Diddy: Cassie Ventura's Fight to Reclaim Her Name

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