Cassie sues Sean Combs for alleged rape and sex trafficking

Hip-hop music and fashion mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with a civil lawsuit Thursday legal action He accused him of raping and sex trafficking singer Cassie, his former romantic partner, over the course of a decade.

In addition to Combs, the lawsuit also names Bad Boy Records, Bad Boy Entertainment, Epic Records and Combs Enterprises as defendants.

Combs, one of the music industry’s most influential and successful executives, founded Bad Boy in the early 1990s. He also founded the Sean John clothing label and developed the Ciroc vodka brand. Just last year, Forbes estimated his Net worth at $1 billion.

“After years of silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story and speak up for myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships,” Cassie said in a statement accompanying her bombshell lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

“As the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act approached, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak about the trauma I have experienced and will continue to recover from for the rest of my life,” said Cassie, whose lawyer name is Casandra Ventura.

Since last November, the Adult Survivors Act has given plaintiffs one year to file civil sexual abuse claims that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations.

Combs “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” his attorney Ben Brafman said in a statement.

“Ms. Ventura’s demand for $30 million under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship was clearly rejected as blatant blackmail,” Brafman said. “Although Ms. Ventura has retracted her original threat, she is now filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies aimed at damaging Mr. Combs’ reputation and demanding a paycheck.”

Cassie’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, countered that Combs “offered Ms. Ventura eight sums of money to silence her and prevent this lawsuit from being filed.” She rejected his efforts and decided to give a voice to all women who suffer in silence.”

“Ms. Ventura should be commended for her courage,” Wigdor added. “No person should have to endure what Ms. Ventura endured.”

Cassie’s lawsuit alleges that Combs, then 37, lured the singer into a professional relationship in 2005, when she was 19, by signing her to his label, Bad Boy Records.

Within a few years, he persuaded her to have a sexual relationship and introduced her “to a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and drug abuse and required her to obtain illegal prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that Combs raped Cassie at her home after she tried to leave him, “blew up” another man’s car after learning of his romantic interest in the singer, and I often hit and kicked her.

And it says Combs “forced Ms. Ventura to have sex with male sex workers while she masturbated and filmed the encounters.”

“During their relationship, Mr. Combs was prone to uncontrollable anger and frequently brutally beat Ms. Ventura,” the lawsuit says.

“These beatings were witnessed by Mr. Combs’ employees and employees of Bad Boy Entertainment and Mr. Combs’ affiliated companies, but no one dared speak out against their frightening and cruel boss.”

Cassie’s lawsuit is the latest legal challenge for Combs. Earlier this year, He sued the owner of Ciroc Diageo for alleged racial discrimination and said they had neglected Ciroc and its DeLeon tequila brand. The company ended their relationship in June after about 16 years.

Combs was also a close friend of rapper Notorious BIG, known as Biggie. He was in Biggie’s entourage in a separate vehicle when the rapper was fatally shot in 1997.

— Additional reporting by Stefan Sykes And Mike Calia