Sean “Diddy” Combs, the notorious hip-hop entrepreneur, faces federal sex trafficking and racketeering allegations in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday. He was arrested on Monday in New York after being indicted by a federal grand jury. The arrest and indictment after a months-long sex trafficking investigation and 10 months after a slew of women came forward with sexual and other mistreatment claims.

Prior to the unsealing of the indictment, Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, stated that they knew what the allegations would be and that Combs was “innocent of these charges.”

What To Know About Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Indictment

Here are the essential details from the three-count indictment.

Alleged assaults stretch back to 2008.
The indictment includes extensive details about Combs’ alleged assaults on several women since 2008. He is accused of “verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual” abuse, as well as having “hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair” in assaults that took “days or weeks to heal.”

According to the indictment, Combs orchestrated sexual encounters between his victims and male sex workers he referred to as “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”

According to prosecutors, these encounters may last for days and frequently included many commercial sex workers, with Combs drugging the participants to “keep the victims obedient and compliant.” The raids on Combs’ houses in Los Angeles and Miami resulted in the seizure of supplies for the “Freak Offs,” including pills and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors.

Combs is accused of leading a criminal business.
The indictment claims that Combs and others he knew were members of a criminal organization that engaged in a variety of illegal activities, including sex trafficking, forced labor, prostitution-related transportation and coercion, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Combs is accused of leading the illicit operations, and the indictment alleges that individuals who worked for him, such as security personnel, domestic staff, personal assistants, and “high-ranking supervisors,” were all involved in the criminal activity, either consciously or unknowingly.

According to prosecutors, Combs’ supporters used violence to maintain and safeguard his control, including the use of weapons, threats of violence, coercion, and verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual assault.

“Combs did not do this all on his own,” stated Damian Williams, the United States Attorney in Manhattan, at a press conference on Tuesday morning. “He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.”

Williams also said that Combs workers were involved in organizing and coordinating the “Freak Offs,” including supplying items, cleaning hotel rooms after the encounters, and assisting in the cover-up of the assaults.

The racketeering conspiracy allegation has been widely utilized to bring down the Mafia and drug cartels.

Prosecutors allege that Combs used firearms to intimidate and threaten victims and witnesses of his crimes, leading them to remain silent. Law enforcement officials said they discovered guns and ammo, including three AR-15s with “defaced” serial numbers, during raids on his houses in Los Angeles and Miami.

The indictment also accuses Combs of exploiting his victims’ desire to advance their careers in the music industry by utilizing his money and influence. Officials also claimed that Combs exploited recordings of the “Freak Offs” to prevent the victims from coming forward. According to authorities, Combs controlled his victims’ housing, tracked their location, dictated their looks, monitored their medical records, and supplied them with narcotics.

Another court filing outlines Combs and his colleagues’ other acts of violence and intimidation, such as kidnapping one individual at gunpoint and ripping open a car’s convertible top to drop a Molotov cocktail inside, causing the car to explode. According to the lawsuit, these events can be corroborated by police reports, fire department records, and witnesses.

What To Know About Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Indictment

The investigation is ongoing, and further arrests are possible.
Prosecutors say they’ve interviewed over 50 victims and witnesses to Combs’ abuse, but they expect more to come forward with their stories.

Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, prosecutors have stated that they are unable to divulge certain specifics, such as information regarding the witnesses who have submitted or will provide testimony.

Williams said Tuesday that he wants Combs imprisoned while he awaits trial. When asked if Combs’ acquaintances or employees will face charges, Williams said he “can’t take anything off the table.”

“Our investigation is very active and ongoing,” she said.

SOURCE | AP

Los Angeles — John David “JD” Souther, a prolific songwriter and performer who helped establish the country-rock style that emerged in Southern California in the 1970s through collaborations with the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, died at the age of 78.

Souther, who co-wrote some of the Eagles’ most famous songs, including “Best of My Love,” “James Dean,” “New Kid in Town,” and “Heartache Tonight,” died on Tuesday at his home in New Mexico, according to a post on his website.

He has also collaborated with James Taylor, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, and many others, and has achieved success as a solo artist. He was scheduled to begin a tour with Karla Bonoff on September 24 in Phoenix, which has now been canceled.

JD Souther, Who Penned ‘Heartache Tonight’ And Other Eagles Hits, Dies At 78

When Souther was elected into the Composers Hall of Fame in 2013, he was dubbed “a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters.” He was also at the center of the social scene, with girlfriends including Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, and Stevie Nicks, who described him in a 1982 interview with High Times magazine as “very, very, very male chauvinistic and very sweet, cute, wonderful but very Texas.”

Souther was born in Detroit and raised in Amarillo, Texas. He traveled to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, where he met fellow Michigan native Glenn Frey, the Eagles’ founding member and guitarist. The two formed a long-term partnership, beginning with a band named Longbranch Pennywhistle. Frey credited Souther with introducing him to country music.

“Our first year together will always seem like yesterday to me,” Souther said in a statement following Frey’s death in 2016. “His remarkable ability to tell a great joke and that brilliant groove that lived inside him are with me even now, amid this loss and pain. “The music and love are indestructible.”

Souther was so close to the Eagles that he appeared on the back cover of their 1973 album “Desperado,” which depicted Souther and others reenacting the capture of the famed Dalton Gang. He recalled his first encounter with Frey at The Troubadour, a prominent West Hollywood music club, as “the best study in songwriting I can imagine.”

“So many great songwriters came through — Laura Nyro, Kris Kristofferson, Randy Newman, Elton John, James Taylor, Tim Hardin, Carole King, Rick Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Waylon Jennings, Tim Buckley, Gordon Lightfoot, Taj Mahal and more,” according to a statement posted on his website. “It seems impossible to conceive that much music in just a year and a half, but that was my life, and the Troubadour was our university.

“It’s also where I met Linda Ronstadt and where Don Henley and Glenn Frey met to form this little country rock band called Eagles that would go on to make musical history,” Souther later recalled.

Souther made his solo debut in 1972, before establishing The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with former Byrds member Chris Hillman and Poco’s Richie Furay. In 1976, he released Black Rose, his second solo album, which featured a duet with Ronstadt, his one-time girlfriend, called “If You Have Crying Eyes.” Other duets he’d recorded with her included “Prisoner in Disguise,” “Sometimes You Can’t Win,” and “Hearts Against the Wind,” the latter of which appeared in the 1980 film “Urban Cowboy.”

JD Souther, Who Penned ‘Heartache Tonight’ And Other Eagles Hits, Dies At 78

His biggest solo hit was “You’re Only Lonely,” which appeared on the same-titled 1979 album.

He also composed the songs “Run Like a Thief” for Bonnie Raitt, as well as “Faithless Love” and “White Rhythm and Blues” for Ronstadt. He collaborated and sung with James Taylor on the song “Her Town Too.”

Other singers with whom he collaborated were Don Henley, Christopher Cross, Dan Fogelberg, and Roy Orbison.a

He has acted in television shows such as “thirtysomething,” “Nashville,” and “Purgatory,” as well as films including “Postcards from the Edge,” “My Girl 2,” and “Deadline.”

SOURCE | AP

NEW YORK — MrBeast is accused of fostering “unsafe” employment conditions, including sexual harassment, and misrepresenting players’ chances of winning the $5 million grand prize on his new Amazon reality show, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by five anonymous participants.

The lawsuit claims that the multimillion-dollar firm behind YouTube’s most popular channel neglected to provide minimum wages, overtime compensation, uninterrupted lunch breaks, and rest time for rivals whose “work on the show was the entertainment product” provided by MrBeast.

MrBeast And Amazon Sued By Competitors From His $5M Reality Show Over Alleged ‘Unsafe’ Conditions

A representative for MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, told The Associated Press in an email that he had no comment on the latest complaint.

Donaldson’s “Beast Games” was dubbed the “biggest reality competition.” It was designed to put the North Carolina content producer in front of viewers outside of YouTube, where his record 316 million subscribers regularly watch his quirky challenges, which frequently include huge financial awards.

However, its inaugural Las Vegas shoot drew criticism before it had finished. Donaldson’s firms recruited 2,000 people in an initial tryout in July, with half of them going on to film the actual show in Toronto.

According to the lawsuit, contestants were unaware until they arrived that the Las Vegas pool had topped 1,000 entrants, severely lowering their odds of success. The lawsuit claims that the “false advertising” violates California business regulations, preventing sweepstake operators from “misrepresenting in any manner the odds of winning any prize.”

The five unnamed contestants also claimed that “limited sustenance” and “insufficient medical staffing” jeopardized their health.

The complaint claims that production workers produced a “toxic” work environment for women who were subjected to “sexual harassment” throughout the contest. According to a press release from the competitors’ lawyers, certain passages are significantly censored to comply with the “confidentiality provisions” they signed.

The lawsuit adds to the concerns, made by internet influencers in the aftermath of the shoot, that an unorganized set left some candidates injured and without frequent access to food and medication. Other volunteers told AP that they were given two light meals per day and MrBeast-branded chocolate bars.

MrBeast’s team is also facing new allegations that they “knowingly misclassified” the participants’ employment status to the Nevada Film Commission to obtain a state tax credit worth more than $2 million.

MrBeast And Amazon Sued By Competitors From His $5M Reality Show Over Alleged ‘Unsafe’ Conditions

The five competitors seek an order that MrBeast implement “workplace reforms” and pay “all wages owed,” among other remedies.

Last month, amid several public relations disasters, Donaldson ordered a comprehensive review of his YouTube empire’s internal culture and announced plans to mandate company-wide sensitivity training.

There has been no further information revealed, and no release date for the reality game show has been announced.

SOURCE | AP