Racketeering and Racketeers

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      What to Know as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Sex Trafficking Trial Begins in NYC

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      The music mogul known as Puffy and Diddy is facing federal charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty.Jury selection for Sean Combs’s federal criminal trial began this week, and opening statements from prosecutors and Mr. Combs’s lawyers are slated for Monday.The trial is being held at the Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan and is expected to last eight weeks. Here’s a primer on the charges and what’s at stake for the music mogul.Who is Sean Combs?Mr. Combs, 55, is one of the most successful producers and entrepreneurs in the history of hip-hop, who helped make artists like the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige into household names. Under the name Puff Daddy, he had a No. 1 smash of his own in 1997 with “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to B.I.G. that sampled the 1980s band the Police. He dated Jennifer Lopez, threw glittery parties in the Hamptons and was a gossip-column fixture for decades.Music was just one part of what became a multifaceted empire for Mr. Combs. He entered the fashion business in 1998 with his Sean John line, which remained hugely popular for years. His MTV reality show “Making the Band” made him a regular TV presence in the 2000s. Later, he founded a media company, Revolt, and promoted the popular vodka brand Ciroq through a deal with the spirits giant Diageo. At one point, his net worth was estimated as high as $1 billion.Mr. Combs has long been accused of violence or serious misconduct, but largely avoided serious consequences as his career ascended. Among those incidents: a charity basketball game in 1991, where nine young people were crushed to death in a stampede (Mr. Combs paid about $750,000 in private settlements). The beating of a rival music executive in his office in 1999 (Mr. Combs attended a one-day anger management course). The threatening of a choreographer on “Making the Band” in 2007 (the two reconciled, and no criminal charges were brought).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Sex Trafficking Trial Begins Jury Selection

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      Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. Potential jurors were asked about their exposure to details of the accusations.Jury selection started on Monday in the federal trial of Sean Combs, which is expected to last well into the summer.The judge overseeing the case, Arun Subramanian, questioned potential jurors gathered at Federal District Court in Manhattan about what they have seen and read about the accusations against the high-profile defendant, whose alleged misdeeds have been nearly inescapable in the news and on social media for the past year and a half. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.Many of the potential jurors said they had been exposed to the case: on a television at the gym, through “water-cooler talk” among co-workers, via a comedian making jokes on Instagram. That exposure was not necessarily disqualifying as long as the potential jurors — who are not being identified by name — said they could decide the case based only on the evidence they saw in court.“You understand that Mr. Combs is presumed innocent?” Judge Subramanian asked one potential juror, who said she had heard about the case on the radio and had been aware of Mr. Combs’s music and celebrity since the 1990s.“Absolutely,” she replied.Mr. Combs has been accused by the government of running a criminal enterprise that is responsible for facilitating a pattern of crimes over two decades, including sex trafficking, kidnapping, arson and drug violations. Prosecutors have accused Mr. Combs of coercing four women into sex, including his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, who is expected to be a star witness in the trial.The music mogul’s lawyers have said that the sex at the center of the government’s case was consensual.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Jury to Decide if He Led an Entourage or a Criminal Enterprise

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      Selection of jurors is to begin Monday in a federal case that accuses the music mogul of deploying his employees to help him commit crimes.Running the life of Sean Combs has long involved a large retinue of employees, including security guards, personal assistants, household staff and higher-ranking supervisors.At the music mogul’s trial on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, the jury will be confronted with the question of whether Mr. Combs led a typical celebrity entourage or, as prosecutors will argue, a criminal enterprise responsible for enabling years of sexual exploitation and other crimes.The selection of that jury begins on Monday as prosecutors and defense lawyers work to choose a 12-member panel for a sprawling case that will put much of Mr. Combs’s life on trial and focus particular scrutiny on the conduct of his employees over two decades.The government says employees set up hotel rooms, procured drugs and arranged for male prostitutes ahead of what prosecutors have described as “drug-fueled coercive sex marathons.” They paid women to keep them under Mr. Combs’s financial control, investigators say, and when Mr. Combs became violent, they managed the aftermath.“They facilitated the cover up of those assaults,” prosecutors wrote of Mr. Combs’s staffers in court papers, “by helping the defendant bribe witnesses, arranging treatment for the victims, secreting the victims away from the public until their injuries healed, and contacting victims in the aftermath of the defendant’s assaults.”In a search of Mr. Combs’s home in Miami, prosecutors said, law enforcement seized firearms and ammunition, including two AR-15s with defaced serial numbers in his bedroom closet.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Path From Harlem to Stardom, and Now Federal Court

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      Jason Swain was on his way home to the Bronx when friends told him that something had happened to his brother at a charity basketball game in Harlem. Nine young people at a City College of New York gymnasium were crushed to death in an overcrowded stairwell. Dirk Swain, 21, was lying on the gym floor with a sheet draped over his body.The promoter of the December 1991 event was a 22-year-old novice music producer named Sean Combs.For more than six years, the Swains and other families pursued wrongful death suits, saying Mr. Combs had oversold the game, and that bad planning and inadequate security had led to the tragedy. By the time their cases were settled, Mr. Combs had skyrocketed from a junior record label employee to global superstardom; the $750,000 that he contributed to the $3.8 million in settlements represented a fraction of his wealth as hip-hop’s newest, flashiest mogul.Mr. Combs never accepted full responsibility for the deaths and, for many people, the stampede faded into history. But not for the families who lost their loved ones.“Every one of those nine people was doing something positive in their life,” Mr. Swain said in an interview.The City College incident was Mr. Combs’s first moment of notoriety, but far from his last. In the ensuing three decades, he has repeatedly faced allegations of violence or serious misconduct. The beating of a rival music executive. Gunshots fired in a nightclub. The threatening of a reality-TV cast member. An assault of a college football coach.If found guilty of all charges, Sean Combs, who has spent the last seven months in a Brooklyn jail, could spend the rest of his life in prison.Willy Sanjuan/Invision, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Loses Request to Remove All Hotel Assault Video From Trial

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      It is not yet clear how much surveillance footage of the music mogul beating his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, in 2016 will be presented to the jury.Lawyers for Sean Combs lost their bid to keep all footage of his 2016 hotel assault on his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, out of his racketeering and sex trafficking trial, which starts next month.At a hearing on Friday, Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that some footage surrounding the assault could be admitted, but it is not yet clear how much of it will be shown.The music mogul’s lawyers argued that the security footage, published by CNN last year, had been sped up, and that the events depicted in it were presented out of sequence. They did not dispute that the video showed their client beating, kicking and dragging Ms. Ventura, but they asserted that the way the footage had been presented was “deceptive” and not fit to be used as evidence.The government is not seeking to admit the entire CNN broadcast into the trial, but there is other footage of the incident, including files provided by CNN through a subpoena.Prosecutors said they were working to slow down some of the CNN footage based on the defense’s concerns. They also said there are two iPhone videos taken of the original footage that partially depict the incident, and the witness who took them will be testifying at the trial.The jury selection process in the case begins on Monday, and opening statements are scheduled for May 12.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Judge Declines to Revoke Young Thug’s Probation After Social Media Post

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      The district attorney’s office in Fulton County, Ga., had cited a post in which the rapper referred to a gang investigator as the “Biggest liar in the DA office.”A judge declined on Thursday to revoke the probation of the Atlanta rapper Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, after prosecutors moved to have him punished for a post on social media in which Mr. Williams referred to a local gang investigator as the “Biggest liar in the DA office.”In a brief ruling on Thursday, Fulton County Judge Paige Reese Whitaker declined the motion from the district attorney’s office of Fani T. Willis without explanation.Atlanta prosecutors had filed a motion on Wednesday arguing that Mr. Williams had violated the terms of his probation, writing that he “has engaged in conduct that directly threatens the safety of witnesses and prosecutors, compromises ongoing legal proceedings, and warrants immediate revocation of probation.”Mr. Williams, 33, pleaded guilty late last year to participation in criminal street gang activity, in addition to drug and weapons charges, ending his role in a sprawling racketeering trial that became the longest criminal proceeding in Georgia history. (The two of the six original defendants in the trial who refused plea deals were found not guilty of murder and conspiracy to violate the RICO act.)At the judge’s discretion, Mr. Williams, who had faced up to 120 years in prison if convicted, was sentenced to time served and 15 years of probation, with an additional 20 years of prison time possible if he violated the agreement. The strict terms of the probation barred Mr. Williams from metro Atlanta for 10 years; required him to undergo random searches and drug tests; and instructed him to refrain from promoting any gangs or associating with known members, potentially complicating his career as a touring rapper.In response to the filing by prosecutors on Wednesday, a lawyer for Mr. Williams, Brian Steel, said in a statement: “This motion is baseless. While intimidation and threats of violence are never appropriate, Jeffery Williams has done nothing wrong. We look forward to seeking a dismissal of this petition.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean Combs’s Lawyers Say Video of Hallway Assault Was Altered

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      The video, a critical piece of the prosecution’s case, shows the music mogul beating and kicking his girlfriend at a hotel in 2016.Lawyers for Sean Combs argued at a court hearing on Friday that a leaked security video showing Mr. Combs assaulting his former girlfriend was “deceptive,” and said they would request that it not be allowed as evidence at his upcoming trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.That video, recorded at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, was broadcast by CNN last year, months before Mr. Combs’s arrest. It showed him beating, kicking and dragging Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend and an artist once signed to his record label under her stage name, Cassie.Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, said that a forensic analysis of the security footage aired by CNN showed that the video had been sped up from its original source, that events were depicted out of sequence and that time stamps on the original tape had been covered up.“It’s a deceptive piece of evidence,” Mr. Agnifilo argued. Mr. Combs’s lawyers, however, did not define how a change in sequencing would have affected a viewer’s understanding of what occurred.Mr. Combs’s legal team also accused CNN of destroying the original footage, and said they planned to file a motion to exclude the video from evidence at Mr. Combs’s criminal trial, which is set to begin in May.CNN, in a statement from a spokeswoman, denied the allegations. “CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source,” the statement said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      YSL Trial Ends With Final Defendants Acquitted of Murder and Gang Charges

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      The winding, yearslong case against the star Atlanta rapper Young Thug, who recently pleaded guilty to gang charges, and five others concluded on Tuesday.Shannon Stillwell, left, and Deamonte Kendrick were found not guilty of murder and conspiracy to violate the RICO act.Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated PressMiguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated PressThe two remaining defendants in the gang conspiracy and racketeering case against YSL, the Atlanta rap label that prosecutors said doubled as a violent street crew led by Young Thug, were found not guilty on Tuesday of murder and conspiracy to violate the RICO act.The verdict ended a winding trial that became the longest in Georgia history. It arrived nearly two years after jury selection began and followed a year of testimony from close to 200 witnesses and nearly 16 hours of deliberations spread across four days.Young Thug, the platinum-selling rapper born Jeffery Williams, accepted a guilty plea on Oct. 31 and was released from jail after being sentenced to time served and 15 years of strict probation. As the case limped toward its conclusion in recent weeks, three other defendants also negotiated plea deals amid chaotic proceedings.Yet two of the original six men on trial — Deamonte Kendrick, known as the rapper Yak Gotti, and Shannon Stillwell, also known as Shannon Jackson — said they rejected similar deals with prosecutors, opting to leave their fate to jurors in Fulton County, Ga.On Tuesday, Mr. Kendrick and Mr. Stillwell were acquitted of the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas Jr., an alleged gang rival, and also found not guilty of participating in criminal street gang activity and conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act, or RICO. Mr. Stillwell was also acquitted of a second murder, but he was found guilty of a single count: possessing a firearm as a felon.The judge in the case, Paige Reese Whitaker, was required to sentence Mr. Stillwell to the maximum sentence for the gun charge — 10 years in prison — because of recidivism guidelines. But she opted to convert all but two of those years to probation while also crediting Mr. Stillwell with time served.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More