Damian Williams

Good morning, everyone. My name is Damian Williams, and I'm the U.S. Attorney here in the Southern District of New York.

Today, I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment. charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution.

The indictment alleges that between at least 2008 and the present, Combs abused, threatened, and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.

He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way. The indictment alleges that those individuals facilitated the freak-offs. They booked the hotel rooms and stocked them with the supplies, including drugs, baby oil, personal lubricant, extra linens, and lighting. When the hotel rooms got damaged, they helped clean it up.

They arranged for victims and commercial sex workers to travel for the freak-offs, and they delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers.

They seized firearms and ammunition, including three defaced AR-15s and a large-capacity drum magazine. They also seized evidence of the freak-offs, electronic devices that contained images and videos of the freak-offs with multiple victims. And they seized cases and cases of the kinds of personal lubricant and baby oil that Combs' staff allegedly used to stock hotel rooms for the freak-offs.

More than 1,000 bottles altogether.

Sean Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity. including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the obstruction of justice.

He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.