Sean "Diddy" Combs, 54, was arrested early on Tuesday morning Swedish time by police at a hotel in New York. Combs has been accused of serious sexual offenses and human trafficking since last November, which he denies.
More details of the charges have now become known, and the long list of criminal suspicions against the rapper makes for unpleasant reading. Combs is alleged to have exploited and abused women over several years, with the help of a group of employees, and to have concealed his actions.
"The music mogul has, according to a consistent pattern, committed offenses against women and other individuals, including physical violence to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his behavior," the charges state.
It is also described how he forced his female victims – often drugged – to participate in day-long "sex shows" called "Freak offs" together with male prostitutes.
Denies Crimes
Sean Combs denies the crimes and showed no reaction when the charges were read out to him.
In the charges, the prosecutor calls the music mogul dangerous and demands that he be imprisoned without the possibility of bail, citing weapons found in his home and the risk that witnesses may be intimidated into silence.
His lawyers requested during the court hearing that he be released on a $50 million bail, but the judge sided with the prosecutor and decided that Combs should be held in custody pending trial.
As recently as last week, the 54-year-old was ordered to pay $100 million, equivalent to over one billion kronor, in damages to a 51-year-old man who claims that Combs drugged and raped him at a party in Detroit in 1997.
Combs denied the allegations but automatically lost the case since he neither appeared at the hearing nor submitted a formal response.
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Earlier this year, CNN published a surveillance video from 2016 showing Combs assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura in a hotel corridor.
Several women have sued Combs for abuse, rape, and other sexual offenses, while a male music producer has accused Combs of unwanted sexual contact.
Combs, who previously went by the stage name Puff Daddy, was a central figure in the conflict between the hip-hop scenes on the American East and West Coasts in the 1990s. He was, among other things, a producer for New York rapper Notorious BIG, who was shot to death in 1997.
In recent years, Combs has increasingly become a party organizer and businessman.
Sean Combs, 54, broke through as an artist and producer under the name Puff Daddy in the early 1990s and helped launch artists like Mary J Blige and The Notorious BIG.
The tribute song "I'll be missing you" after The Notorious BIG's death topped the US chart for eleven weeks.
Combs changed his stage name to P Diddy in 2001 and has increasingly focused on business and less on music. Among other things, he launched the clothing brand Sean John and has business interests in everything from vodka brands to cannabis sales and gaming companies, which have made him extremely wealthy.
He is eighth on the list of the world's richest artists, compiled by the business magazine Forbes. His fortune is estimated to be equivalent to 9.2 billion kronor.
