Federal prosecutors in the US have added two charges to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ indictment, expanding on allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul engaged in sex trafficking as recently as last year.
A superseding indictment filed on Friday accuses Combs of using force, fraud or coercion to compel a woman to engage in commercial sex acts from at least 2021 to 2024.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, also alleges Combs was involved in transporting the woman — identified only as Victim-2 — and other people, including commercial sex workers, to engage in prostitution during the same time frame.
The new charges are in addition to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges filed against Combs when he was arrested in September. They increase the total number of charges against him from three to five.
Combs, 55, is scheduled to stand trial on May 5. He remains locked up at a federal jail in Brooklyn. A message seeking comment on the new charges was left with his representatives.
Combs denies committing any crimes and has pleaded not guilty to the first set of charges, which allege that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
His arraignment on the new charges has not been scheduled.
Federal prosecutors allege the singer and Bad Boy Records founder used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs”.
