R&B vocalist Cassandra Ventura sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in US federal court on Thursday, accusing the rapper and hip-hop mogul she once dated and whose music label she signed with of subjecting her to serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape.
One of the central allegations against Combs by Ventura, who performs under the stage name Cassie, was that he forced her to engage in sex acts with a succession of male prostitutes he hired while he watched and filmed the encounters for his own pleasure.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Manhattan, also accuses Combs of regularly beating Ventura over the course of a 10-year professional and romantic relationship in which he controlled her through intimidation and by plying her with drugs and alcohol.
Photo: AFP
Ventura, 37, alleges that Combs raped her near the end of their relationship in 2018 when she broached the idea of leaving him.
Combs’ lawyer, Ben Brafman, issued a statement saying his client “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”
Brafman said Ventura resorted to filing a lawsuit “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies” after a failed attempt to blackmail Combs into paying her US$30 million by threatening to write a damaging book about their relationship.
Combs, 54, founder of the landmark label Bad Boy Records, is one of the most influential producers and executives in hip-hop and a hugely successful performer in his own right, as well as the impresario of his own Sean John clothing line.
Forbes magazine ranked him in 2017 as the world’s highest-paid musician, then earning an estimated US$130 million a year.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday depicted Combs, who has formerly gone by such monikers as “P. Diddy,” “Puff Daddy” and “Diddy,” as an erratic, controlling individual with violent tendencies aimed at Ventura and others.
The lawsuit said he forced Ventura to carry his handgun for him in her purse, once dangled a friend of hers over the balcony of a high-rise hotel suite and blew up a car belonging to rapper Kid Cudi after learning he was interested in Ventura.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS