R&B singer Cassandra Ventura sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in federal court Thursday, accusing the rapper and hip-hop artist she once dated and whose record label she was signed to for harassing her. , sexual slavery and rape.
One of the allegations involving Ventura’s Combs, who goes by the stage name Cassie, is that he forced her to have sex with a series of male prostitutes he hired while watching and filming the shows for entertainment.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Manhattan, also accuses Combs of repeatedly assaulting Ventura during a 10-year professional and romantic relationship in which he controlled her by threatening and abusing her with drugs and alcohol.
Sean Combs arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala (Met Gala) to celebrate the opening of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and Imagination Catholic” in Manhattan, New York, US, May 7, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz /File Photo Get Licensing Rights
Ventura, 37, alleges that Combs raped her towards the end of their relationship in 2018 when she expressed the idea of leaving him.
Combs’ attorney, Ben Brafman, released a statement saying his client “denies these outrageous and offensive allegations.”
Brafman said Ventura resorted to filing a lawsuit “full of baseless and painful lies” after a failed attempt to force Combs to pay him $30 million by threatening to write a damaging book about their relationship.
Combs, 54, founder of the landmark label Bad Boy Records, is one of the most influential producers and executives in hip-hop and is a highly successful performer in his own right, as well as the impresario of his Sean John clothing line.
Forbes magazine ranked him in 2017 as the highest-paid musician in the world, earning an estimated $130 million a year.
The lawsuit filed Thursday showed Combs, who had been followed by exponents like P. Diddy, Puff Daddy and Diddy, as a disorganized, controlling person who is violent towards Ventura and others.
The lawsuit said he forced Ventura to carry his gun in his purse, once hung his friend over the balcony of a high-end hotel and blew up rapper Kid Cudi’s car after learning he liked Ventura.
According to the lawsuit, Ventura met Combs in late 2005 when he was 19 and when he was 37, she signed a 10-album deal with Bad Boy Records within months and began a romantic relationship with him a few years later.
The lawsuit does not seek a specified amount of monetary damages. Instead, it says Ventura wants “justice for the ten years of her life that Mr. Combs took from her through threats of violence, drug abuse, physical and mental abuse and sexual slavery.”
The lawsuit cites violations of sex trafficking and human trafficking laws under federal, New York and California laws.
Combs is the latest high-profile figure in the recording industry to be accused of sexual misconduct in a recent string of lawsuits, including singer Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, record producer LA Reid and music executive Neil Portnow, former chairman and CEO of the Recording Academy.
Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, editing by Deepa Babington
