A federal indictment accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of dangling someone over a balcony in an allegation that is strikingly similar to an encounter alleged in separate lawsuits two women filed against the music mogul.
Combs, 55, is charged in a five-count indictment with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records and one of the most prominent figures in the music industry, is being detained in a jail in Brooklyn, New York, until his trial, which is scheduled to start next month.
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The indictment has been amended three times with new allegations or charges, most recently last week to include an additional charge each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The second amended indictment, filed last month, alleged that Combs forced some of his employees to work long hours with little sleep and coerced an employee into having sex. The first amended indictment accused Combs of having coerced two additional women into sex acts and of having “dangled a victim over an apartment balcony.”
He has pleaded not guilty to all of the allegations and charges, except for those filed last week. He is scheduled to enter a plea on those counts April 25.
The criminal indictment was preceded by a civil suit filed in 2023 by his former longtime girlfriend, model and singer Casandra Ventura, 38. She alleged in the lawsuit that Combs had dangled a friend of hers over the balcony of a 17th-floor hotel suite in or around August 2015.
Ventura alleged in the suit, which she and Combs settled privately within a day without his admitting any wrongdoing, that he subjected her to “savage” beatings, in which he punched, kicked and stomped on her, leaving her with bruises, burst lips and black eyes.
She also claimed in the document that he plied her with drugs and forced her to have sex with male sex workers while he masturbated and recorded them. Ventura’s suit and the indictment said Combs referred to the drug-fueled encounters as “freak offs.” During some freak offs, the suit said, Combs would become extremely intoxicated and violent, hitting Ventura in the presence of the male sex workers.
The original indictment referred only to Victim-1, whose accusations closely align with those in Ventura’s suit.
Ventura alleged in the lawsuit filed in 2023 that in the middle of a surprise dinner for her 29th birthday around August 2015, Combs insisted she leave the party to go to a hotel to participate in a freak off.
When Ventura told him that she did not want to go, Combs had her cornered by his security staff to force her to leave with him, the suit said. After the alleged freak off, it said, the two went back to her hotel room where some of her friends were hanging out. While he was severely intoxicated, Combs lifted one of her friends and dangled the friend over the balcony of the 17th-floor suite, causing Ventura and her friends to fear Combs’ “erratic behavior,” it said.
Ventura was heavily sedated because of the drugs she took to participate in the freak off and was unable to respond to Combs’ “terrifying behavior,” according to the suit.
Ventura’s attorney declined to comment for this article.
In a different lawsuit filed against Combs last year in Los Angeles, Bryana Bongolan alleges there was a balcony encounter that she said occurred in 2016 instead of 2015, as Ventura said in her suit. The federal indictment did not include a date or any other details except that the victim was female.
The two lawsuits also differed about whether Ventura responded to the alleged dangling. Whereas Ventura said she was heavily sedated and unable to respond, Bongolan said in her lawsuit that when Ventura saw Combs dangling Bongolan over the balcony, she shouted at Combs to stop.
Bongolan, 33, said in her lawsuit that she met Combs through her friendship with Ventura and that early on or about Sept. 26, 2016, she was sleeping in Ventura’s apartment when Combs began shouting and banging on the door. The suit says he entered the apartment and “advanced on her” while she was on the balcony.
“He grabbed her, turned her back to his chest, and molested her by groping her breasts as she yelled to be left alone,” the suit alleges.
Bongolan, who is 4-foot-11 and weighed less than 100 pounds at the time, tried to resist Combs by throwing her weight back while he lifted her up on the banister of the 17th-floor balcony, but he “easily overpowered her,” the suit says, adding that he lifted her up higher and over the balcony.
Ventura emerged from her bedroom to see Combs holding Bongolan over the balcony and screamed for him to stop, the lawsuit says. Combs moved Bongolan from the balcony and slammed her onto patio furniture, including a table, it says.
Bongolan’s complaint says that she was an aspiring fashion designer when she met Combs and that she completed numerous design projects for him from 2016 to 2018.
Bongolan’s attorney, James Nikraftar, did not reply to emails and phone calls seeking comment for this article. He has previously told NBC News that Bongolan would not be speaking publicly.
Representatives for Combs did not immediately reply to requests for comment. In a statement to Rolling Stone after Bongolan’s suit was filed, a legal representative for Combs denied her allegations.
“Anyone has the right to file a lawsuit, regardless of the evidence they may or may not have,” the representative told the publication. “Since last year, Ms. Bongolan has expressed an intention to sue Mr. Combs and has sought legal representation to pursue her claims.
“Mr. Combs firmly denies these serious allegations and remains confident they will ultimately be proven baseless.”
Bongolan is seeking a jury trial and more than $10 million in damages for sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. More than 50 civil lawsuits have been filed against Combs, accusing him of sexual misconduct. He has denied all of the allegations.
Jury selection for Combs’ criminal trial is scheduled to begin at the end of the month, and opening statements are scheduled to begin May 12.
