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An ongoing investigation into sex trafficking allegations against Sean Combs has reportedly hit a new milestone.
According to sources familiar with the numerous legal battles the media mogul faces, a federal grand jury in New York is mulling evidence against Combs as part of a criminal investigation. Meanwhile, he’s also facing yet another lawsuit in a series of civil claims brought against him by women who say he assaulted or trafficked them during the height of his fame.
The allegations against Combs have snowballed since last November, when ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a bombshell lawsuit claiming sexual assault and coercion, domestic violence, and other acts of abuse. He settled with Ventura the day after she filed, but denied the allegations. Several lawsuits from other women followed, apparently emboldened by Ventura’s claims. Combs has denied these allegations, as well.
The release of security footage mentioned by Ventura in her suit shook those who believed Combs’s claims of innocence: in a video from 2016, Combs was seen shoving and striking Ventura as she struggled to escape a hotel room. Combs eventually admitted to the attack via an Instagram video that he has since deleted.
California’s criminal case statute of limitations means he can’t be charged for the admitted attack on Ventura, but a Homeland Security-led raid of his homes in March suggested that officials believed Combs might be involved in other illegal activities. Last month, it was reported that federal officials were working to convene a grand jury in Manhattan to weigh evidence against Combs, with prosecutors combing through the allegations made in the multiple civil cases against him for any useful details.
Those prosecutors now have an additional civil case to examine, as numerous media outlets report that a woman named Adria English filed suit against Combs on Wednesday, saying that as a former employee of the entrepreneur’s, she was was “groomed… into sex trafficking over time.”
English, who says she worked at Combs’s annual Labor Day “White Party” at his Hamptons home, says the job had no “requirements for physical sexual contact and seemed to be a legitimate employment opportunity” when she accepted it, but after working three such events, Combs “demanded” that she “begin engaging in vaginal sexual intercourse with guests, as they had learned about her past in adult entertainment and used it forcefully to coerce Plaintiff into sex work.” (Under the name “Omunique,” English had previously been employed in the adult film industry. She says that Combs did not hire her to work in that capacity.)
Page Six reports that one of the guests she was reportedly trafficked to was Jacob Arabov, a man once known as “Hip-Hop’s Jeweler” for his relationships with folks in the R&B music industry. Arabov, also known as “Jacob the Jeweler,” was jailed in 2008 as part of a federal investigation into a Detroit-area drug ring. He has since been released. (Vanity Fair’s efforts to reach Arabov were unsuccessful as of publication time.)
“At the end of the night, Defendant Combs, personally congratulated Plaintiff for following his directives with Defendant Jacob and a job well done,” the lawsuit states. At subsequent parties, she was also coerced into additional nonconsensual acts as a victim of Combs’s “ongoing corrupt sex trafficking organization,” her suit claims.
Via statement, Combs attorney Jonathan Davis issued a denial, saying “No matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court.”
But before he gets to the civil courthouse, Combs might be defending himself in a criminal courtroom in New York. According to NBC News, Combs’s attorneys have been notified “by federal authorities in the Southern District of New York that he is a subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.”
A federal grand jury is currently hearing evidence gathered by prosecutors and law enforcement as part of a probe into Combs and his activities, NBC also reports. It’s unclear, however, if any charges against Combs are expected in the coming days, as spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s Office are on holiday break and were unavailable for comment as of publication time.
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Eve Batey
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