Latest News: The list of famous people who appear in the sexual-assault lawsuits against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs… See More

On Monday, Combs was hit with a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old at one of his famous white parties. The complaint was one of six new lawsuits — the others allege rape and sexual assault — to hit the hip-hop mogul in October and is part of a wave of 120 civil lawsuits expected to be filed against him in the near future.

Combs and his lawyers have denied all the allegations against him, calling the six lawsuits filed this month an attempt to “garner publicity.”

“Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process,” the lawyers said. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”

Combs was already facing a dozen civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and sex trafficking. The complaints, the first of which was filed by his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, provide detailed allegations of rape, abuse, and drugging.

In September, Combs was criminally charged in federal court with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The indictment came after a monthslong investigation — including raids on Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami homes.

We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the US Attorney’s Office,” Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lawyer, said in a statement to Business Insider following the federal charges. “These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

While the federal indictment lists only Combs as a defendant, it refers to some of his employees and associates as members of the criminal enterprise he led.

The series of civil suits that have hit him over the past year identified several powerful and wealthy people in Combs’ orbit. Some are outright accused by plaintiffs of wrongdoing — whether that be witnessing the abuse and not stopping it or providing drugs to Combs. Others — such as Prince Harry, Nicki Minaj, or Usher — are simply mentioned in passing and not accused of any wrongdoing.

For decades, the hip-hop mogul has been surrounded by accusations of violence — sometimes involving other very famous names.

Here are the well-known people linked to the accusations against Combs.

Aaron Hall, an R&B singer who was part of the group Guy, was named as a defendant in a complaint filed against Combs last November in the New York Supreme Court ahead of the expiration date for New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which provided a one-year window in which people could bring cases of sexual assault outside the typical statute of limitations.The plaintiff, who is named Liza Gardner, accuses Combs and Hall of sexually assaulting her and a friend in Hall’s apartment after a music industry event hosted by MCA Records in 1990 when she was 16 years old. She says Combs “coerced” her into having sex with
him and that afterward, “Hall barged into the room, pinned her down, and forced” her to have sex with him too.The plaintiff also alleges that Combs found her at her home and choked her until she passed out; he was worried his girlfriend would find out about the incident, the complaint says.In one YouTube video cited in the complaint, Hall says in an interview that “Puffy” — what Combs was known as in the 1990s — had seen him have sex.Hall could not be reached for comment. His lawyer was not yet identified in court documents as of April 8.

Music producer Harve Pierre was named as a defendant in two lawsuits filed against Combs ahead of the Adult Survivors Act’s expiration date. Both lawsuits were filed anonymously, one in the New York Supreme Court and the other filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, with the plaintiff listed as Jane Doe on both documents.Pierre was Combs’ first employee at Bad Boy Records, the former president of his Bad Boy Entertainment, and worked with artists like The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans.In the first complaint, filed in November 2023, a former employee of Bad Boy who worked as Pierre’s assistant accuses Pierre of using his position of power “to groom, exploit, and sexually assault her.” Combs and his companies enabled the abuse, thecomplaint says.In a second lawsuit filed in December 2023, the plaintiff alleges that when she was 17 in 2003, Combs, Pierre, and an unnamed third defendant gang raped and sex trafficked her. Specifically, she alleges that Pierre smoked crack cocaine and then forced her to give him oral sex before bringing her from Detroit to New York City on a private jet.In New York, at a studio owned by Combs, the defendants provided the plaintiff with drugs and alcohol before raping her, the complaint alleges.Pierre’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. He has denied the accusations made in the second complaint.”This is a tale of fiction. I have never participated in, witnessed, nor heard of anything like this, ever. These disgusting allegations are false and a desperate attempt for financial gain,” he said in a statement obtained by TMZ

An amended complaint filed in March in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York by Rodney Jones Jr. — a music producer who goes by Lil Rod — lists Cuba Gooding Jr. as a defendant. Jones accuses Gooding of sexual harassment and sexual assault.Specifically, Jones accuses Combs of grooming him to “pass him off” to Gooding. The two were left alone in a makeshift studio on a yacht rented by Combs, according to the complaint.There, Gooding began “touching, groping, and fondling Mr. Jones’ legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks, and his shoulders,” the complaint alleges.The actor previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of forcible touching.Gooding’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider

While not necessarily a celebrity in his own right, Justin Dior Combs — Diddy’s 30-year-old son — is a defendant in Jones’ amended complaint in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York.In a wide-ranging list of allegations, Jones accuses Justin Combes of soliciting sex workers and underaged girls, as well as engaging in “freak offs.”He also says the younger and older Combs were the only other two people present in the room when “G,” a friend of his, was shot at a recording studio — implying one of them shot G.Justin Combs was at Combs’ Los Angeles home when it was raided by feds and was seen handcuffed on the lawn outside, though he was not arrested.Justin Combs’ lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said that the complaint was “utterly bonkers” on his radio show “Beyond the Legal Limit.””It’s clearly written in an effort to get as much publicity as possible, not only for the case but for the lawyer whose name I don’teven remember, literally some maniac,” he said.Lichtman did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Jacob Arabo, better known as Jacob the Jeweler, is named as a defendant in a complaint filed against Combs by Adria English in July.In the lawsuit, English accuses Combs of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking. The complaint alleges that she worked at Combs’ famous white parties as a go-go dancer for years and that, at at least one of the parties, he forced her to have sex with Arabo, one of the party guests.”Plaintiff, fearing not only her safety, but her and her then-boyfriend’s job security, did as instruct and went with Defendant Jacob where she engaged in forced sexual intercourse with Defendant Jacob at the demand and behest of Defendant Combs. Plaintiff knew refusing Defendant Combs demands was not an option,” the
complaint says.The complaint also says English saw Arabo “solicit and ingest narcotics.” In a photograph included in the complaint, English and Arabo are photographed together.Arabo has been a character on the hip-hop scene for decades, with early clients including Notorious B.I.G. and Combs. Jay-Z raps about him in Beyonc’s “Upgrade U,” as does Kanye West in Rick Ross’ “Live Fast, Die Young.””I really wanted to make statement pieces,” he told Business Insider in 2016 about the flashy pieces that became his signature.”They would stand there waiting for me to be available to see them to show them jewelry. A line of people waiting,” he added of his A-list clientele. “Before you know, you have Michael Jackson as a client, you have David Beckham, you have Madonna, you have all these celebrities.”The complaint against him is not Arabo’s first run-in with the law. In 2006, he was arrested on money laundering charges. As part of a plea deal, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for falsifying records and making false statements, CBS reported.Arabo did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.