"Individuals looking for a quick payday": Breaking down Diddy's numerous sexual assault lawsuits

Bad Boy Entertainment CEO settled a sexual assault lawsuit with ex-partner Cassie and since then more have followed

By Nardos Haile

Staff Writer

Published December 8, 2023 1:25PM (EST)

Sean "Diddy" Combs attends Sean "Diddy" Combs Fulfills $1 Million Pledge To Howard University At Howard Homecoming – Yardfest at Howard University on October 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs)
Sean "Diddy" Combs attends Sean "Diddy" Combs Fulfills $1 Million Pledge To Howard University At Howard Homecoming – Yardfest at Howard University on October 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs)

Ever since singer Cassie filed and settled a bombshell lawsuit alleging decades of sexual violence and sex trafficking against longtime ex-partner and hip-hop music mogul Sean "Diddy," Combs the floodgates have opened. This has resulted in Diddy vehemently denying any wrongdoing and stepping down from his businesses.

This week a fourth woman has come forward accusing Combs of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in New York federal court. The lawsuit alleged that she was a teen when she was gang raped and sex trafficked by Combs alongside Harve Pierre, a former president of Bad Boy Records and another unnamed person. The unidentified woman claimed that the assault took place in 2003 when she was 17 and Combs was 34. The lawsuit was filed under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. NBC News reported that the law allows survivors of alleged gender-motivated violence, including sexual abuse that occurred in the state, until March 2025, to file civil claims.

Additionally, the woman is also using the same representation as Cassie in the now-settled lawsuit against Diddy. Her attorney said that Combs and Pierre, "preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager as part of a sex trafficking scheme that involved plying her with drugs and alcohol and transporting her by private jet to New York City where she was gang raped by the three individual defendants at Mr. Combs’ studio."

But this isn't the only sexual assault lawsuit that the Bad Boy Entertainment CEO is facing now. Before the newest lawsuit, two other women had accused the musician of sexual abuse too.

Following Cassie's lawsuit against Combs, the second accuser filed her suit one day before the expiration of the New York Adult Survivors Act, which allows adult sexual assault survivors one year to sue regardless of when the original statute of limitations expired, according to NBC News. The woman said that she met Combs at Syracuse University when she was a college student in 1991. In the lawsuit, she claimed that Combs drugged her, sexually assaulted her, and recorded and showed the video to people without her knowledge.

The accuser said she chose to file the lawsuit after Cassie filed the lawsuit alleging he raped, sex-trafficked and abused her.

A spokesperson for Combs denied the allegation calling the claim "not credible" and "purely a money grab.”

The third lawsuit filed on Nov. 23, the same day as the second lawsuit, accused Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall of sexually assaulting a woman at Hall's apartment in the early '90s. Again, the lawsuit was reportedly filed because of the expiration of the New York Adult Survivors Act.

After the third lawsuit, the music mogul stepped down as chairman from Revolt, the music-oriented television network he co-founded in 2013.

Regardless of the settlement with Cassie or his resignation at Revolt, he refutes any culpability. Combs said in a statement on X: “Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.

“Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,” he continued. “I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”

 

 

 

 

 


By Nardos Haile

Nardos Haile is a staff writer at Salon covering culture. She’s previously covered all things entertainment, music, fashion and celebrity culture at The Associated Press. She resides in Brooklyn, NY.

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