TMZ has reported that Diddy, currently charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, is seeking to be released asn has put up his assets as collateral.
According to court documents, Diddy has offered his $48 million mansion on Miami’s exclusive Star Island as the main security for the bail, along with his mother’s Miami home, valued at $2 million.He has also reportedly agreed to several conditions, including limiting his travel and wearing a GPS monitor for authorities to track his movements.Despite the proposed bail package, US Attorney Damian Williams has opposed the rapper’s release, arguing that he poses both a ‘flight risk’ and a ‘danger to society’. Williams cited Diddy’s alleged history of ‘violent behaviour’ as part of the justification for keeping him in custody.
If convicted, Diddy faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and could be sentenced to life in prison, which according to the report, prosecutors argue gives him significant motivation to flee.
Combs, 54, was arrested by federal agents in New York on Monday and is to make a first appearance in a Manhattan courtroom later on Tuesday.
Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said prosecutors will ask a judge to detain the music mogul ahead of his trial. He also said that although Combs is the only person indicted for the moment the investigation is ongoing.
Combs’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, told reporters his client would plead not guilty.
“He’s going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might,” he added.
Combs is also charged with one count of transporting victims across state lines to engage in prostitution.
The indictment alleges that — for decades — he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
It accused him of running a “criminal enterprise” that carried out “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
Combs allegedly engaged in a “persistent and pervasive pattern” of verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of women, the indictment said.
“On numerous occasions from at least in or about 2009 and continuing for years, Combs assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them,” it said.
Williams said female victims were forced to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers called “Freak Offs,” which were planned and controlled by Combs and often videotaped.
“The Freak Offs sometimes lasted days at a time… and often involved a variety of narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB,” he said. “The indictment alleges that Combs threatened and coerced victims to get them to participate in the Freak Offs.”
Rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Arrested: Accused of Sexual Abuse and Trafficking
