Topline
NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and comedian Druski were named as defendants and accused of sexual assault in an amended complaint filed by one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ accusers, though both men have denied the new allegations in social media posts—while Combs, who has previously denied the allegations, as well as his other assault lawsuits, awaits trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Timeline
March 9, 2025Druski, a popular comedian whose real name is Drew Desbordes, said on social media the allegation is a “fabricated lie,” stating he could not have been present for the alleged assault in 2018 because he was not yet a public figure and had no connections to the entertainment industry, while Beckham said in a post the allegations have “no truth” and that he had never met the defendant or been to Orinda, California, where the alleged incident took place.
March 7, 2025Five months after filing her original lawsuit, Combs accuser Ashley Parham filed an amended complaint in California federal court naming Druski and Beckham as two of the men who allegedly assaulted her in an alleged gang rape incident in March 2018.
March 6, 2025The new indictment alleges Combs forced employees to “work long hours with little sleep” by subjecting them to, or threatening them with, “physical force, psychological harm, financial harm, and reputational harm,” allegedly making them believe they would lose their jobs if they did not comply with his demands, with Combs allegedly forcing one employee to engage in sex acts with him through threats and force (Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifolio told multiple news outlets he “vehemently denies the accusations”).
Feb. 14, 2025A lawsuit accusing Combs and Jay-Z of rape was dropped: Read more about the case here.
Feb. 12, 2025An unnamed woman said she was assaulted by Combs at a Los Angeles night club in 2016 after she rejected his offer of a drink. Her lawsuit claims Combs said, “B***h, I am not asking you. Drink that s**t and shut the f**k up,” which scared her into complying. She then alleges Combs shoved his hand up her skirt and digitally penetrated her while saying, “B***h I do what I want, take that s**t.”
Feb. 12, 2025A then-21-year-old male model claimed in a lawsuit he was responding to an advertisement for “hip-hop models” he didn't realize was placed by Bad Boy Records in 2006 when, at the casting call, Combs ordered him to remove all of his clothes. When he refused, Combs allegedly made disparaging comments about his race and groped him, whispering in his ear, “get me when you change your mind” before the unnamed plaintiff was able to leave the room.
Feb. 10, 2025An anonymous male plaintiff said in a legal complaint he was performing as a street musician in Los Angeles in 2022 when he was approached by a man claiming to be a talent scout for Combs and invited to an “A-list birthday party.” Combs allegedly made numerous promises about helping him secure a major recording contract before offering to show the plaintiff his jewelry collection, at which point the plaintiff said he noticed he was feeling the effects of a drugged drink. Combs then raped the plaintiff before a driver took him back to the nightclub at which he was found, the lawsuit claims.
Feb. 7, 2025An unnamed plaintiff filed suit alleging he was 17 years old in 2012 when he was given multiple shots of vodka that made him "hazy and disoriented" before he was raped by Combs at the SoHo club in New York, the BBC reported (Combs’ attorney told the BBC he’s “never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone - man or woman, adult or minor”).
Feb. 4, 2025Two unnamed women who say they were active in the hip hop scene in the 1980s and 90s filed lawsuits in Manhattan alleging they were assaulted by Combs on multiple occasions in the late 1990s. The first woman claimed she was slipped a drug to make her feel "woozy" before multiple men raped her under "Combs' direction" while at his home in the Hamptons, and also claimed she was assaulted again after being drugged and taken to the Trump Hotel in New York, where she was forced to "participate in group-sex activity." The second woman says she was subjected to "sexual assault, coercion, abuse and violence" at the hands of Combs, and that one one occasion she was assaulted by his bodyguard while Combs looked on.
Feb. 3, 2025Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, who has promised he will file civil lawsuits on behalf of more than 100 sexual abuse victims of Combs, filed a new suit in New York state court on behalf of a male musician who said he was sexually assaulted in 2015 after a performance he was told could lead to a deal with the mogul’s Bad Boy Records.
Jan. 22, 2025Ashley Parham, an accuser who filed suit against Combs in a California federal court in October, spoke to Ashleigh Banfield of NewsNation Tuesday night and detailed an evening in 2018 in which she says Combs and two other men "took turns" raping her while recording the assault before she was able to threaten him with a knife and ultimately run away from his house after a neighbor created a distraction. Parham also spoke to Peacock for the documentary “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” and Combs’ legal team called allegations in the documentary “fabricated.”
Jan. 9, 2025Investigation Discovery, the network that aired the “Quiet On Set” docuseries, released a trailer for its new four-part series called "The Fall of Diddy" and announced it will premiere across two consecutive nights starting Monday, Jan. 27. The series will span Combs' decades-long career and include first-hand accounts and archival footage "offering personal insights into harrowing allegations of violent behavior and illegal activity that have shadowed the music mogul."
Jan. 2, 2025Peacock released a trailer for a 90-minute documentary special called “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy" set to be released on Jan. 14, which features interviews with a bodyguard, makeup artist, producer and others who promise to provide “crucial insight into the forces that shaped [Combs] and may have made him a monster.” Lawyers for Combs said upcoming documentaries include "unchecked claims and provide platforms for baseless conspiracy theories without accountability or evidence," specifically calling out the Peacock production for lacking "any connection to the truth."
Dec. 20, 2024A woman named LaTroya Grayson said she was 23 years old when she won a radio station contest to attend one of Combs' New York City parties in 2006, after which she woke up at at Saint Vincent's Medical Center of New York with no memory of what happened. The lawsuit claims she awoke with vaginal pain, was missing her underwear, her shirt was ripped and her money was stolen, and that she received a threatening phone call the next day telling her not to pursue charges against Combs, leading her to believe he was involved in her alleged assault. Combs’ attorneys called the claim “pure fiction” in a statement to USA Today.
Dec. 20, 2024An anonymous woman filed a lawsuit through Buzbee claiming she was sexually assaulted by Combs in 1991, minutes before a fatal stampede broke out at a charity basketball game he had organized at City College in New York. The plaintiff said she was sexually assaulted in Combs' dressing room while his bodyguard "was standing watch."
Dec. 13, 2024An anonymous accuser who says Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jay-Z raped her at a party when she was 13 years old spoke to the press for the first time about her claim and defended herself against attacks over inconsistencies in her allegations, including disputed claims that her father picked her up after the alleged assault, that she spoke to a celebrity at the party where she was assaulted and that Jay-Z and Combs weren't at the location she described for at least part of the night in question. Jay-Z said in a statement the assault "didn't happen." Tony Buzbee, the plaintiff's lawyer, said his office does "our best to vet each claim made” and stood by the allegation.
Dec. 12, 2024Three unnamed men all using the same lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, filed lawsuits in in New York state Supreme Court describing incidents alleged to have taken place between 2019 and 2022, in which they say they were drugged before being attacked by Combs while unconscious. Representatives for Combs said the lawsuits were "full of lies" in a statement to NBC News.
Dec. 11, 2024An anonymous New Jersey man and Combs accuser told CNN Combs had given him two drinks that made him feel “extremely ill” at one of his famous white parties in 2007 in East Hampton, New York, after which he alleges Combs assaulted him in a vehicle as he was “screaming” at him to stop. “The full gravity of it lives with me to this day,” the accuser said, claiming it ended his marriage. CNN noted multiple inconsistencies between the interview and his complaint, noting the lawsuit says the assault took place in 2006 and that he had not been married, and the accuser’s lawyers filed an amended complaint with the court correcting what it said were mistakes.
Dec. 8, 2024An update to a lawsuit filed in October accuses music mogul and rapper Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 along with Combs—an allegation Carter has strongly denied as he accused the accuser’s attorney Tony Buzbee of engaging in blackmail. In the initial suit, an Alabama woman alleged she was 13 years old when Combs and another male celebrity repeatedly raped her during an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty.
Nov. 27, 2024Bryana “Bana” Bongolan filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles, multiple outlets reported, asking for $10 million in compensation for sexual battery and physical abuse that she said culminated in the rapper lifting her off of the ground and dangling her over the edge of a 17th-story balcony before slamming her into patio furniture during an incident at his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura's apartment in 2016.
Nov. 19, 2024Buzbee filed five more lawsuits in New York federal court alleging sexual misconduct, bringing the total number to 20.
Oct. 28, 2024Buzbee filed two lawsuits in New York Supreme Court.
Oct. 20 , 2024Buzbee filed seven lawsuits against Combs on behalf of unnamed plaintiffs.
Oct. 15, 2024Parham claimed in a lawsuit she was "violently” gang raped by Combs and accomplices in 2018 after she claimed on a FaceTime call with the Bad Boy Records founder that he'd been involved in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, which “set her up” for retaliation.
Oct. 14, 2024Buzbee filed his first six lawsuits against Combs on behalf of unnamed plaintiffs.
Oct. 1, 2024Buzbee said he is representing 120 accusers who plan to file civil lawsuits across multiple states alleging crimes like sexual assault, rape and sexual abuse of minors in claims that will include "many powerful people" and "many dirty secrets."
Sept. 27, 2024Combs was accused of drugging and raping a woman on multiple occasions, with the woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, further alleging she became pregnant after one of the encounters; she is seeking undisclosed damages, the Associated Press reported.
Sept. 24, 2024Thalia Graves filed a federal lawsuit in New York claiming she was raped by Combs and his former bodyguard in 2001, an allegation later disputed by the bodyguard, Joseph Sherman, in a November countersuit.
Sept. 17, 2024A memo filed with New York judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky accused Combs and co-conspirators of setting fire to an unnamed person's car using a Moltov cocktail in an accusation that matches one brought by Combs' ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, who said in a lawsuit filed last year that Combs blew up a car owned by rapper Kid Cudi.
May 24, 2024Plaintiff April Lampros accused Combs in a lawsuit filed in New York of sexual assault over four “terrifying sexual encounters” between 1995 and 2001, including three incidents of rape and one instance of Combs forcing her to take ecstasy.
May 22, 2024Former model Crystal McKinney filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court accusing the rapper of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his New York recording studio in 2003.
Feb. 26, 2024Producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones sued the rapper in New York, alleging he was “subjected to unwanted advances by associates of Diddy at his direction,” was forced to engage in relations with sex workers he hired and that Combs regularly hosted “sex-trafficking parties” with underage women and illegal drugs.
Dec. 6, 2023Combs was hit with another sexual assault suit, accusing the rapper of drugging and participating in a gang rape of the unnamed woman in 2003, when the accuser was 17 years old.
Nov. 23, 2023A woman named Joie Dickerson-Neal alleged in a lawsuit Combs drugged her, sexually assaulted her and secretly recorded the assault while she was a college student in 1991.
Nov. 23, 2023An anonymous plaintiff accused Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall of raping her and a friend in 1990 or 1991 after meeting at an MCA Records event in New York—a suit that, like the Dickerson-Neal complaint, was filed shortly before the expiration of a New York law temporarily allowing lawsuits for older assault allegations that would ordinarily be past the statute of limitations.
Nov. 16, 2023Cassie Ventura filed a $30 million lawsuit against Combs, alleging he raped her in 2018 and subjected her to a years-long abusive relationship that included physical abuse and his assertion of “complete control” over her personal and professional life (the case was settled the next day for an undisclosed amount, and Combs’ attorney continued to deny the claims until May of 2024, when CNN pushed a 2016 surveillance video of Combs attacking her in a hotel hallway).
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to(201) 335-0739 or sign uphere:joinsubtext.com/forbes.
Crucial Quote
“Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process,” Combs’ attorneys said a statement in October, their latest in continuous denials of any wrongdoing. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman.”
Key Background
The allegations contained in lawsuits against Combs date as far back as the 1990s and have so far included victims who claim they were as young as 13-years-old at the time of their abuses. In addition to individual claims of assault—most of which also include accusations Combs drugged alleged victims—the lawsuit filed by Jones made allegations of a wide-spread Hollywood conspiracy that allowed Combs’ behavior to go unchecked for decades. In his claim, Jones detailed sex-and drug-fueled parties Combs was alleged to have thrown and accused him of running a “sex-trafficking venture” that was largely ignored by others in the music industry. The complaint alleges Combs would throw parties where he, his son and his employees would recruit women and underage girls to perform sex acts for money “through the means of force, threats of force, fraud, abuse of process and coercion.” The lawsuit said people affiliated with the parties were rewarded with business referrals and connections to Combs' vast network of artists, athletes, political figures and international dignitaries. Shawn Holley, an attorney for Combs at the time, told the Los Angeles Times the suit includes "reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen."
What To Watch For
An upcoming docuseries. Producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson said Netflix has won a “bidding war” for a docuseries about the string of recent abuse, rape and sex trafficking allegations against Combs. Jackson confirmed in a tweet that the streamer bought the G-Unit Film & Television series about Combs he first started teasing in December, adding that, “if more victims keep coming out, I’m gonna need more episodes.” Proceeds from the film go to victims of sexual assault, Jackson said in November.
Forbes Valuation
Sean Combs was once on the path to becoming a billionaire thanks to his extensive music career, business ventures that included the Sean John fashion and fragrance lines and founding the Revolt TV network and since unrealized plans to become a cannabis mogul. Forbes estimated Combs’ personal wealth at $740 million in 2019 (he and his team later claimed he was a billionaire, but offered no supporting evidence). Today, Forbes conservatively estimates he is worth $400 million.
Further Reading