Cassie Ventura and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs attend the Heavenly Our bodies: Style & The Catholic Creativeness Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Artwork on Could 7, 2018 in New York Metropolis.
John Shearer | Getty Pictures | The Hollywood Reporter | Getty Pictures
Hip-hop music and vogue mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit Thursday with a civil lawsuit accusing him of raping and intercourse trafficking singer Cassie, his former romantic companion, over the course of a decade.
Along with Combs, the swimsuit names Dangerous Boy Data, Dangerous Boy Leisure, Epic Data and Combs Enterprises as defendants.
Combs, one of the crucial influential and profitable executives in music, based Dangerous Boy within the early Nineties. He additionally launched a clothes label, Sean John, and developed the Ciroc vodka model. As not too long ago as final yr, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1 billion.
“After years in silence and darkness, I’m lastly prepared to inform my story, and to talk up on behalf of myself and for the advantage of different ladies who face violence and abuse of their relationships,” Cassie mentioned in an announcement about her bombshell swimsuit, filed in U.S. District Courtroom in Manhattan.
“With the expiration of New York’s Grownup Survivors Act quick approaching, it grew to become clear that this was a chance to talk up in regards to the trauma I’ve skilled and that I will likely be recovering from for the remainder of my life,” mentioned Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura.
The Grownup Survivors Act since final November permits accusers a one-year window to file civil claims of sexual abuse that in any other case can be barred by the statute of limitations.
Combs “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” his lawyer Ben Brafman mentioned in an announcement.
“Ms. Ventura’s demand of $30 million, below the specter of writing a dangerous ebook about their relationship, was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail,” Brafman mentioned. “Regardless of withdrawing her preliminary risk, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to submitting a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ repute, and looking for a pay day.”
Cassie’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, shot again that Combs “provided Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and forestall the submitting of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and determined to present a voice to all lady that suffer in silence.”
“Ms. Ventura needs to be applauded for her bravery,” Wigdor added. “No human ought to need to endure what Ms. Ventura has endured.”
Cassie’s accusations
Cassie’s swimsuit says that in 2005, when she was 19 years outdated, the then 37-year-old Combs lured the singer into an expert relationship by signing her to his label, Dangerous Boy Data.
Inside a number of years he induced her right into a sexual relationship, and launched her “to a life-style of extreme alcohol and substance abuse and required her to obtain illicit prescriptions to fulfill his personal addictions,” the swimsuit alleges.
The swimsuit claims that Combs raped Cassie in her dwelling after she tried to go away him, “blew up” one other man’s automobile after studying of his romantic curiosity within the singer, and sometimes beat and kicked her.
And it says Combs “pressured Ms. Ventura to interact in intercourse acts with male intercourse employees whereas masturbating and filming the encounters.”
“All through their relationship Mr. Combs was liable to uncontrollable rage, and incessantly beat Ms. Ventura savagely,” the swimsuit alleges.
“These beatings have been witnessed by Mr. Combs’ workers and staff of Dangerous Boy Leisure and Mr. Combs’s associated companies, however nobody dared to talk up in opposition to their scary and ferocious boss.”
Cassie’s swimsuit is the most recent authorized problem for Combs. Earlier this yr, he sued Ciroc proprietor Diageo for alleged racial discrimination, saying they uncared for Ciroc and his tequila model, DeLeon. The corporate ended their relationship in June after about 16 years.
Combs additionally was an in depth good friend of rapper Infamous B.I.G., referred to as Biggie. He was in Biggie’s entourage, in a separate car, when the rapper was fatally shot in 1997.
— Further reporting by Stefan Sykes and Mike Calia
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