Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - P. Diddy's Shocking 'Freak Off' Sex Parties at Center of Trafficking Indictment

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. The indictment alleges that Combs abused and exploited women and other people for years and in a variety of ways. Sean Combs' sex parties, dubbed freak-offs, are a big part of the indictment, charging him with racketeering and sex trafficking. His lawyer, meanwhile, says he's going to fight the charges.

Starting point is 00:00:29 He's not guilty. He's innocent of these charges. I take a closer look at what the feds say happened during these freak-offs and why they're considered a crime. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Sean Combs has now officially been charged with a number of federal crimes. This is no surprise, of course. An indictment has been expected for months now, following those raids on his homes in California and Florida back in March. But it seemed to take some time.

Starting point is 00:00:55 And the feds usually do take their time building their cases bit by bit and trying to make them as airtight as possible. The feds, after all, have a conviction rate higher than 90%. But Sean Combs has maintained that he hasn't committed any crimes, and his lawyer said as much outside of the courthouse. He's not guilty. He's innocent of these charges. We know what the charges are going to be without seeing the indictment. It's going to be racketeering. It's going to be sex trafficking.

Starting point is 00:01:24 You'll see things along those lines. This is what we've been expecting since the search is in March. He, to his great credit, he voluntarily came to New York. Not a lot of defendants do that. He came to New York to basically engage the court system and start the case and it'll start today. And he's not guilty, obviously. He's going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might and the full confidence of his lawyers. And I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Combs. Sean Combs' world seemed to start unraveling last November when his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, filed a civil suit against him, claiming she was sexually and physically abused by Combs for years.

Starting point is 00:02:05 She basically said she was terrorized by him. Combs settled that suit the very next day. It was pretty stunning. Then came an avalanche of other lawsuits. And one thing that has often been mentioned are Combs' sex parties. They're called freak-offs. The U.S. attorney discussed the freak-offs

Starting point is 00:02:21 in a press conference. 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 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,

Starting point is 00:03:04 which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant. As alleged, when Combs didn't get his way, he was violent, 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. This case involving Sean Combs and these allegations of sex trafficking and abuse go to show you how you might one day need a lawyer. Well, Morgan & Morgan is a law firm that can help you if you were ever injured in an accident or need a lawyer.

Starting point is 00:03:38 Morgan & Morgan has more than 1,000 lawyers working for the firm who are ready to fight for you and stand up for your rights. Starting a claim with Morgan & Morgan is easy and can be done in eight clicks or less using just your smartphone. And you only pay Morgan & Morgan if you win. Isn't that great? So give it a try. Log on to ForThePeople.com slash LC Crime Fix to start your claim in eight clicks or less. The feds lay out in more detail how these freak-offs were organized in the indictment. Combs and other members and associates of the Combs enterprise wielded the power and prestige of Combs' role at the Combs business to intimidate, threaten, and lure female victims into Combs' orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs referred to as, among other

Starting point is 00:04:30 things, freak-offs. Freak-offs were elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded. In arranging these freak-offs, Combs, with the assistance of members and associates of the Combs Enterprise, transported and caused to be transported commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally. The U.S. attorney referenced one incident of someone being abused during a freak-off that sounded eerily familiar. Remember Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who I mentioned earlier, and that explosive video obtained by CNN that showed Combs chasing her down a hallway and stomping on her? Well, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams referenced an incident that sounded a lot like that incident at the hotel in Los Angeles in 2016 that involved Ventura. On one occasion in March of 2016, that conduct was captured on video and later reported

Starting point is 00:05:26 in the media. Specifically, Combs kicked, dragged, and threw a vase at a victim in a Los Angeles hotel when the victim was attempting to flee. As alleged, these assaults often resulted in injuries to the victims, which took days or weeks to heal. In addition to the victims, which took days or weeks to heal. In addition to the violence, the indictment alleges that Combs threatened and coerced victims to get them to participate in the freak offs. He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak offs as collateral against the victims. And the indictment alleges that he maintained control over the victims in several ways, including by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away

Starting point is 00:06:10 financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities, by monitoring their whereabouts and even by dictating their physical appearance. Because of all of this, the indictment alleges that the victims did not believe they could refuse Combs without risking their security or facing more abuse. Now remember, Sean Combs may be the person facing the charges, but the feds are accusing him of using his business empire to run a criminal enterprise. And they say he wasn't doing this alone. And Combs has been charged with RICO conspiracy. He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.

Starting point is 00:07:05 The U.S. attorney says those employees included high-ranking supervisors, security staff, household staff, personal assistants, and other Combs business employees. They facilitated the freak-offs, according to the indictment, by, among other things, booking hotel rooms for the freak-offs, stocking the hotel rooms in advance with the required freak-off supplies, including controlled substances, baby oil, lubricant, extra linens, and lighting, cleaning the hotel rooms after the freak-offs to try to mitigate room damage, arranging for travel for victims, commercial sex workers, and Combs to and from freak-offs, resupplying Combs with requested supplies, delivering large sums of cash to Combs to pay the commercial sex workers. And this next one is a bit shocking when you read it because it shows that these freak-offs, since they were alleged to have gone on for days, were physically grueling and taxing. The indictment says Combs' associates actually had IV fluids delivered for participants. It continues, in or about March 2024,

Starting point is 00:07:56 during searches of Combs' residence in Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California, law enforcement seized various freak-off supplies, including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricants. So federal prosecutors are saying Sean Combs had stockpiled lubricant and baby oil that was used in these freak-offs. A lot of this information started coming to light late last year when Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs, which was remarkably settled the very next day, as I mentioned earlier. But more lawsuits followed with more allegations. And U.S. Attorney

Starting point is 00:08:31 Damian Williams says Combs and his team tried to get those making the allegations to stay quiet. And as the indictment alleges, in late 2023, after public allegations were made about Combs' crimes, he and others pressured witnesses and victims to stay silent, including by making phone calls to witnesses and victims and giving them a false narrative of what they had experienced. And as alleged, Combs used others to help conceal his abuse by monitoring and preventing victims from leaving a location in order to hide their injuries or by locating and contacting a victim who had attempted to flee. Combs had been in New York for several days anticipating the

Starting point is 00:09:11 indictment. News Nation obtained exclusive video of him talking with his attorney and one of his sons in a park over the weekend. But the feds swooped in Monday night and took him into custody. He's officially charged with three counts, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution. First, this office is determined to investigate and prosecute anyone who engages in sex trafficking, no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be. No one should doubt our commitment on that. A year ago Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today he's been indicted and will face justice in the Southern District of New York. Second, we are not done. This investigation is ongoing and I

Starting point is 00:10:04 encourage anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly. Anyone with information can call 1-877-4HSITIP. New York, just right next door to the Southern District of New York. So, Reena, looking through these documents, the freak-offs, these parties are just, you know, it's a really appalling thing. They were going on for days in some instances. Explain to the audience what the crime is here with the freak-offs. Yeah. So, looking through the indictment and reading it carefully, just basically, definitionally in the indictment, the freak off is defined as an elaborate and produced sexual performance that was arranged by Combs and members of what is termed in the indictment, his enterprise, which is a word that is used when racketeering charges are alleged in a federal indictment, as the group of people around, in this instance, Combs, the allegation is, that were working together in service of

Starting point is 00:11:14 advancing the goals of the enterprise, which here it's stated are Combs' businesses, basically. So that's just definitionally to start how the indictment defines that term. And some of these parties, I guess, I hate to call it a party because it doesn't sound fun, but they went on for days. And we're talking about people being recorded. The allegation is that this was all for Sean Combs' sexual gratification. Sex workers were hired in some instances. People were forced, they felt like, to take part in these things. They were videotaped and then coercion was used, almost like blackmail was used to keep them quiet about it.

Starting point is 00:11:57 And the part that gets me is the fact that IV fluids were given to participants. Talk to me a little bit about that type of thing. I mean, where's the federal crime there? Well, there's some interesting parts of the indictment that build on public reporting that we heard a couple of months ago when there were public raids or search warrants executed at the homes of Combs. So just speaking to the IV fluids, that's alleged in the indictment to be one of the things that members of the enterprise did to assist Combs in setting up these freak-offs as they're defined in the indictment. So some of the things that the indictment says that were done are setting up hotel rooms, buying supplies, which include baby oil and lubricant, making travel plans for the sex

Starting point is 00:12:50 workers, as well as combs, and then delivering IV fluids. And when we talk about and think about what we learned, what was publicly reported, which was not very much back then about what was taken out of the homes, but now we learn in the then about what was taken out of the homes. But now we learn in the indictment, at least some of the things that were taken out of the homes, which they include the baby lubricant, baby oil and lubricant. I believe it says more than a thousand bottles of those between the homes. Now, how probative or how important and helpful that evidence will be for the prosecution were this to go to trial, that remains to be seen. But certainly we see what some of the

Starting point is 00:13:32 search warrants yielded in this indictment, it looks like. Yeah. And the prosecutor, the U.S. attorney, I should say, mentioned that in his press conference that they seized a thousand bottles of lubricant slash baby oil seized during the raid. If you're Sean Combs' lawyer, I assume you just say, look, this is a guy who has an active sex life. This is something he stores, whether you like it or not. He has a lot of this stuff. Is that kind of where you go in defending that type of thing? Because, you hear that, you hear a thousand bottles of lubricant and you just think to yourself, oh my God, why does anybody need a thousand bottles of that stuff? Yeah. I think that that could be an argument for the defense. Other things that

Starting point is 00:14:14 were seized that are named in the indictment are interesting to talk about, including a couple of guns and that piece and how it's connected to the enterprise and to the way that they are describing in the indictment, the prosecution describing the indictment, the freak offs. There's an allegation that there was sometimes brandishing and use of these weapons, not necessarily those weapons, but weapons in general for the purposes of intimidation and threats. And so that evidence weaves into the proof of the indictment as well that was recovered from the search warrant. So that's, I hear you on the possible defense argument for the lubricant. And I think the question of why there were guns in the house, that will be something else that the defense has to contend with moving forward. They say that the allegation is that he kept videos and he filmed a lot of this stuff.

Starting point is 00:15:09 Basically, he did this to keep people quiet about this. It was almost blackmail material. And it kept people obedient to him and compliant to him. So is there a federal crime in that? Or is the crime more in that they're saying he transported sex workers across state lines? He was using some type of coercive things. He was coercing people to take part in these things. Is the crime really in the transporting of sex workers across state lines for these parties? That's part of it. Yes. There

Starting point is 00:15:43 are three crimes that are alleged in the indictment. There is racketeering conspiracy. There is sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. And then there is transportation to engage in prostitution. So the racketeering conspiracy charge is the most robust and far reaching. The charge of racketeering in general allows a prosecutor to put in evidence of the enterprise. In this case, the enterprise is defined as the Combs enterprise, which is defined as basically everybody around him and working with him. As the evidence unfolds with the prosecution, they'll be able to put in evidence about the way

Starting point is 00:16:21 that his lifestyle was, the way that his businesses ran, the way that the people that worked for him operated. And just two things I noted from the indictment that were interesting, to your point, the discussion of video evidence. Now, it doesn't say from what I read in the indictment explicitly that there is video evidence different from the recovery of the lubricant and the firearms, but it does suggest from the way that it's written that there is video, potentially video evidence that Combs retained for himself of the freak-off. So it suggests that. It doesn't go as far as saying that. But I feel it's probably possible that the prosecution does have that kind of evidence based on reading this indictment.

Starting point is 00:17:09 And the part about giving drugs out at these freak offs to the participants, I'm assuming that's to keep people kind of engaged in this activity. Drugs can cause people to lose their inhibitions, as we know. What part of the crime does that include? Is that a coercion part of it? It's not clear from the indictment what piece of that entirely it will be, how it will be woven into the prosecutor's case. Certainly, we can conclude logically that using drugs could be have a coercive element. There was a note apart from the firearms and lubricant that was found in the houses were also narcotics. I did not see what type of narcotics that they were, whether they were personal use weight, you know, what kind of weight we're talking about, whether it's a personal use narcotic weight, or whether

Starting point is 00:17:54 it's something larger that could be distributed to more people. I think we'll learn more as the evidence unfolds and as, you know, the case kind of moves forward. Yeah, there was ketamine, GHB, and some other things, ecstasy, which were named as drugs by the U.S. attorney in his press conference. But it's all, as far as the freak-offs go, are the freak-offs really the meat of the case here, in your opinion, with Combs using his company, the enterprise, so to speak, to organize these parties? Is this really the meat of the case? It's hard to say. When we're talking about a racketeering enterprise and proving that up at a trial, there's many things that can come in. So it sounds like because they're alleged so explicitly in the indictment, that that is

Starting point is 00:18:43 something that the prosecution would intend to put in as a centerpiece of evidence at trial. Whether or not, as the case continues, that is what we will see. If it were to go to trial, remains to be seen. Certainly from the indictment, it sounds like, particularly with the detail of the IV drip, that there are witnesses to the things that are being alleged in the indictment and that was returned after a vote by a grand jury. So we can imagine that there may be more that will be learned from those witnesses should this go to trial. Well, it will be certainly something to watch. Reena Paul, do you anticipate more coming out

Starting point is 00:19:22 of this? That's really the big question. The U.S. attorney says, you know, this is ongoing. If you have information, call us. Are more dominoes going to fall? And will we see possibly a superseding indictment? Because we have three charges here. I think people may be expected a little bit more. Yeah, we'll see. Many times when a racketeering indictment is put out, it is with multiple people in it because there have to be multiple people that engage in the crime in order for it to be a crime at all. You can't do this crime with one person. So the fact that there's only one person named in the indictment is something that I certainly paid attention to when I read it. And we'll see if there are more and whether or not anyone will be publicly named along with him or superseded into the same indictment as him. It will be very interesting to see. Reena Paul, thank you so much. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime

Starting point is 00:20:17 Fix. I'm Ian Janette 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 - P. Diddy's Shocking 'Freak Off' Sex Parties at Center of Trafficking Indictment

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - P. Diddy's Shocking 'Freak Off' Sex Parties at Center of Trafficking Indictment

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