Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday in Manhattan, New York, his lawyer said.
The charges on which he was arrested were not immediately clear — but according an unnamed source cited by the New York Times, they stem from a grand jury indictment against Combs.
Scripps News has not yet independently confirmed the reporting.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement to NBC News. “Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts.”
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Federal authorities searched Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami in March as part of a sex-trafficking investigation. Combs had also in recent months been a defendant in sex abuse lawsuits. He has denied all the allegations in those suits.
One of the highest profile suits was by R&B singer Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, who sued Combs in federal court on accusations of rape and repeated physical and sexual abuse over the course of years.
The lawsuit alleged that starting when she was 19, “Mr. Combs asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura’s personal and professional life, thereby ensuring her inability to escape his hold.” It alleges numerous cases of physical and sexual assault.
The suit alleged that Ventura was a victim of sex trafficking, due to the nature of multiple sexual encounters she was coerced into across the country.
That suit was settled just a day after it was filed.
