By Federal agents raided homes owned by hip-hop mogul Sean Combs in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a criminal probe based in New York, NBC News reported, citing sources.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents who raided Combs’ properties were authorized to search them by warrants issued in Manhattan federal court, months after a series of lawsuits accused Combs of serious sexual misconduct, law enforcement sources said.
Phones were seized from the 54-year-old Combs in Miami before he was scheduled to leave for a trip to the Bahamas, according to NBC.
A source familiar with the situation told NBC that three women and one man have been interviewed in New York by federal authorities in connection to a probe involving possible sex trafficking, sexual assault, the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms related to Combs, who is also known as “Diddy,” “Puff Daddy” and “P. Diddy.”
Interviews with three more women, identified as “Jane Does,” are scheduled.
“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners,” Homeland Security said in a statement to NBC 4 Los Angeles.
Benjamin Brafman, a New York attorney who has represented Combs, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Combs has denied the civil allegations against him.
The raids come a month after a music producer named Rodney “Li Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court claiming that Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him while he was living and traveling with Combs.
Tyrone Blackburn, a lawyer for Jones, and two women who have sued Combs, in a statement to NBC News said, “We can appreciate today’s raids by the federal government; however, today’s events are not going to prevent nor delay my clients’ pending and forthcoming actions for justice and resolution from the Combs RICO Enterprise.”
Douglas Wigdor, a New York lawyer for singer Casandra Ventura, who quickly settled a bombshell lawsuit against Combs last fall accusing him of raping and sex trafficking her, said he was also representing a “Jane Doe” in the federal probe of Combs.
“We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law,” Wigdor said in a statement.
“Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct,” the lawyer said.
Combs was sued in Manhattan federal court by Ventura, who is known as Cassie.
Cassie’s suit said that in 2005, when she was 19 years old, Combs lured her into a professional relationship by signing her to his label, Bad Boy Records, and within several years, induced her into a sexual relationship, and introduced her “to a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse and required her to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions.”
The suit claimed Combs raped Cassie in her home after she tried to leave him, “blew up” another man’s car after learning of his romantic interest in her and often beat and kicked her.
Cassie and Combs agreed to settle her complaint for undisclosed terms just a day after she filed the suit.
But after that settlement, two other women, Liza Gardner and Joie Dickerson-Neal, in lawsuits of their own accused Combs of sexually assaulting them.
A fourth woman, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, sued Combs in December, accusing him of gang raping her two decades ago, when she was 17 years old, with the former president of his record label and another person.
Blackburn, the attorney, represents Gardner and Jane Doe.
A lawyer for Dickerson-Neal declined to comment to NBC News about the raids on Combs’ homes.
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