A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
Federal charges have been filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs. The music producer was arrested outside of a New York hotel last night, and officials say he is in police custody. NPR's Sidney Madden is here to tell us about the charges that have just been made public. Sidney, so what was he indicted on?
SIDNEY MADDEN, BYLINE: Combs is being indicted on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and sex trafficking. This 14-page indictment opens up by arguing that Combs for decades has abused, threatened and coerced women and others to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal all of his conduct. In response to this sweeping arrest and this indictment, Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said in a statement, we're disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Combs. He characterizes Combs as an icon, a vital member of the community. And he says he is an imperfect person, but he's not a criminal. And he said later that he was innocent and that they would be fighting all charges.
MART脥NEZ: Now, there is a lot in the indictment about the Combs enterprise. What is that?
MADDEN: Yeah, this indictment paints a picture of Combs using his company, Bad Boy Entertainment and Combs Enterprise, as a business empire and criminal outfit in promotion of not only himself as an artist but as a place to fulfill his personal desires, particularly those relating to sexual gratification, including exploitation of women and the use of commercial sex workers. The indictment lays out this really extensive web that Combs created within his company of people who knew about these abuses, enabled them, procured drugs and sex workers for him, and generally just normalized his violent behavior.
MART脥NEZ: All right, so those are the criminal charges. What happens now?
MADDEN: Well, he's expected to be arraigned very soon. And he's also facing a number of separate civil lawsuits that allege a lot of the same behavior. Those civil lawsuits really kicked off last year with his former girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura filing against him. But since then, there's been a number of lawsuits filed by other former employees, including singer Dawn Richard, producer Rodney Jones, other people who were working for him as personal assistants over the years. It's very extensive.
MART脥NEZ: All right, that's NPR's Sidney Madden. Sidney, thank you very much.
MADDEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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