Whereas the goal of the raid has not but been recognized and Combs has not been arrested as of Tuesday, it was the most recent and most critical occasion in ongoing authorized troubles going through the music mogul, who’s finest often called Diddy. Over the previous 5 months, sexual assault and misconduct allegations have piled up towards him.
In November, an ex-girlfriend of Combs’, Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and abuse through the 10 years they dated. Combs denied the allegations and Ventura, often called Cassie, settled with Combs a day after she filed the lawsuit. Nonetheless, extra ladies quickly got here ahead with their very own allegations of rape, intercourse trafficking, and sexual abuse. In February, music producer Rodney Jones Jr., often known as Lil Rod, filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of groping him and forcing him to carry out sexual acts with intercourse staff.
Combs has denied all of the allegations towards him and didn’t reply to requests for remark from Enterprise Insider following the raids.
Diddy operates in a world of maximum wealth. Within the three a long time since he began Unhealthy Boy Data, the 54-year-old has amassed extra money than almost every other hip-hop artist. He pioneered a enterprise playbook that has been adopted by many different profitable musicians and have become an trade gatekeeper — giving him energy that a number of of the folks suing him accuse him of utilizing to cowl up his abuse.
Data, vogue, liquor: Combs pioneered the hip-hop money-making playbook.
In 1993, Combs, then often called Puff Daddy and Puffy, based Unhealthy Boy Data after a stint at Uptown Data.
The label quickly turned the place for East Coast hip-hop acts rising on the scene. He signed Craig Mack, 112, Religion Evans, Mase, and Infamous B.I.G. Combs’ personal 1997 album “No Approach Out” reached platinum standing seven instances over.
In his heyday, the label introduced in $130 million yearly — sufficient that Combs may negotiate a $55 million private advance in 1998 from Unhealthy Boy’s associate, Arista Data, Forbes reported in 1999. Till he returned the publishing rights to a few of Unhealthy Boy’s artists final 12 months, Combs was personally incomes hundreds of thousands from the Unhealthy Boy catalog annually.
Music was solely the start. By the late Nineties, Combs was paving the best way for what would develop into the enterprise path for a lot of future musicians.
He began with Sean Jean, a line of clothes, furnishings, and fragrances offered at shops like Macy’s and Dillard’s. It turned a constant income for the mogul.
Whereas the model’s cache ultimately dwindled — he bought it again for under about $7.6 million in 2021 — Sean Jean loved greater than a decade of success. In 2016, when a majority share was offered to International Manufacturers Group, it was reported that the model had retail gross sales of $450 million and that he pocketed $70 million.
Combs’ most profitable endeavor got here in 2007 when he turned a model ambassador for Ciroc vodka. He struck up a singular cope with Diageo and received paid per case.
Inside the first two years of the partnership, annual gross sales grew from 75,000 to 400,000 instances, in keeping with a lawsuit Combs filed towards Diageo final 12 months. In 2014, it offered 2.6 million. The liquor big doubled down on Combs, asserting in 2014 that they’d purchased DeLeon tequila in a 50-50 partnership.
Whereas Combs and Diageo parted methods earlier this 12 months after a contentious authorized battle, the corporate did give some perception into Combs’ complete earnings in a courtroom submitting final 12 months: He’d made almost a billion {dollars} all through their 15-year partnership.
He is invested that cash in different upstarts, launching the Revolt TV cable community in 2013 and teaming with Mark Wahlberg to buy a majority stake in water firm Aquahydrate.
“On the finish of the day, the numbers do not lie,” he informed Forbes that 12 months. “I am identical to every other businessman; on the finish of the 12 months I’ve to get my report card and cope with the fact of no matter it’s.”
Ethan Miller/Getty Photos
In 2022, Combs was labeled a billionaire for the primary time.
In 1999 interview, Combs informed Forbes that he “needed to be very, very wealthy.”
That is precisely what occurred. By 2022, Combs’ internet price had reached $1 billion, in keeping with Zack O’Malley Greenburg, the creator of the Jay-Z biography “Empire State of Thoughts,” who tracks hip-hop’s wealthiest musicians.
And whereas that determine has seemingly fallen over the previous 12 months — he is given up the publishing rights for Unhealthy Boy’s artists, and his cope with Diageo has been dissolved — his wealth remains to be huge.
Mixed, he is earned properly over $1 billion, pretax, from the Ciroc deal, his document label, and Sean Jean. A few of that’s tied up in numerous investments — together with less-than-successful ones, like Revolt TV — whereas a major quantity has been spent on a lifetime of luxurious and numerous toys. He owns a jet that prices eight figures, over $1 million price of jewellery, and a group of artwork that features a $21 million portray by Kerry James Marshall and works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
His actual property portfolio consists of immense properties in Los Angeles and Miami, price $46 million and $36 million, respectively, in keeping with county assessments.
Whereas constructing his empire, Combs amassed “harmful” energy.
Combs has gathered a mixture of wealth and affect from his numerous enterprise endeavors.
That has made him “immensely highly effective, and immensely harmful,” Ventura’s legal professional wrote in her grievance towards Combs.
He “used his cash and energy to orchestrate in depth efforts to cover the proof of his abuse,” the grievance continues.
The grievance alleges Combs “lured” Ventura into his circle, utilizing his place as the pinnacle of Unhealthy Boy Data. Ventura mentioned after the abuse began, Combs used his cash and energy to cover it.
She was usually afraid to combat again or communicate up, realizing he had a strong community who would defend him, in keeping with the grievance.
“There was nobody she may inform about what had occurred by the hands of this extremely highly effective man,” the grievance says. “She acknowledged that she was powerless, and that reporting Mr. Combs to the authorities wouldn’t alter Mr. Combs’s standing or affect however would merely give Mr. Combs one other excuse to harm her.”
In a separate lawsuit filed in November, Joi Dickerson-Neal alleges that Combs drugged and assaulted her in 1991.
When, on the time, she tried to take authorized motion, “colleagues informed Plaintiff that they have been terrified that Combs would retaliate towards them and that they’d lose future enterprise and music alternatives in the event that they made a press release in help of Plaintiff, as Combs’ star was on the rise within the Nineties,” the grievance says.
Yet one more lawsuit, filed in December by an unnamed lady solely recognized as Jane Doe, accuses Combs of utilizing a personal jet to assist within the intercourse trafficking and gang rape of a highschool pupil.
With the feds storming his properties and allegations mounting, it appears as if Combs’ reign as a hip-hop powerhouse could also be coming to an finish — partly as a result of lawsuits.
Following the claims of sexual assault, Combs stepped down as Revolt’s chairman and has reportedly offered his shares. Hulu canceled a actuality present about his household.
And the lawsuits are coming after greater than him and his private money stash: 4 of them title Unhealthy Boy or Combs Enterprises as defendants.
