In a new superseding indictment filed Thursday, prosecutors expanded their sex trafficking and racketeering case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, claiming he coerced two additional women into commercial sex acts, “dangled a victim over a hotel balcony” and possessed and intended to distribute two new drugs not listed in his original indictment: methamphetamine and psilocin, a hallucinogen.
The 15-page indictment, obtained by Rolling Stone, did not name any new co-defendants or add additional counts against Combs. Instead, it added the new allegations under Count One, the charged racketeering conspiracy. The document also expanded the timeframe of the alleged conspiracy, saying it started in at least 2004. The prior start date was 2008.
Combs’ prior indictment, returned in September 2024, said Combs engaged in a “pervasive pattern of abuse toward women” but only mentioned “Victim-1” specifically. The new indictment makes clear prosecutors are basing their case in part on a “Victim-2” and a “Victim-3.” Regarding drugs, the prior indictment accused Combs of possessing cocaine, oxycodone, Ecstasy, and ketamine.
The hotel balcony claim appears to be a reference to Bryana “Bana” Bongolan, a creative who sued Combs in November. In her lawsuit, Bongolan says Combs dangled her over a 17th-floor balcony in September 2016 while screaming at her.
“The latest Indictment contains no new offenses,” Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo says in a statement to Rolling Stone. “The prosecution’s theory remains flawed. The government has added the ridiculous theory that two of Mr. Combs’ former girlfriends were not girlfriends at all but were prostitutes. Mr. Combs is as committed as ever to fighting these charges and winning at trial.”
Combs, 55, is currently charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he faces 15 years to life in prison. A trial date is set for May 5.
Combs has been held without bail since his Sept. 16 arrest, pleading not guilty to the original three charges against him. Three judges denied his request for release — which included a substantial $50 million bail package and around-the-clock monitoring — citing concern of witness tampering and being a danger to the community. Although Combs’ team of high-profile attorneys had put the matter in front of an appellate court, Combs’ lawyers voluntarily dismissed the bid on Dec. 13. (Rolling Stone has reached out to representatives for Combs.)
There were no additional details given in the superseding indictment about the two other alleged female victims in the case. However, prosecutors previously claimed in court documents that Victim-2 had texted Combs in the days after Ventura filed her bombshell sex trafficking lawsuit that reading the suit was like reading her own “sexual trauma.” (Combs’ team denied the woman was a victim.)
As Combs prepares for trial, his defense attorneys have claimed that he coming to court a changed man. They said he’d sought professional help and gone to rehab years prior to address his substance-use issues. However, a Rolling Stone investigation from this week found Combs was still volatile, still taking altering substances and was still allegedly sexually abusive. More than a dozen new accusers — several who were speaking publicly for the first time — came forward with claims that Combs physically attacked, drugged, and/or sexually assaulted them between 2016 and 2024. (Some of these interviews appear in The Fall of Diddy, made in partnership with Rolling Stone Films.)
Prosecutors previously acknowledged that a superseding indictment could be in play, telling U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at a conference hearing in October that their investigation was ongoing and there was a likely possibility of more charges being brought against Combs. The same month, CNN and NBC reported that a grand jury had been hearing testimony from witnesses.
The original 14-page indictment against Combs seemed to closely follow the accusations that R&B singer Ventura leveled against him in her explosive sexual abuse lawsuit from November 2023. Ventura alleged that throughout her decade-long relationship with her Bad Boy label boss, she was physically beaten and forced to consume narcotics while having sex with male sex workers. Combs denied her allegations and the lawsuit was settled within 24 hours.
Prosecutors didn’t name Ventura in the indictment but it was clear that she was “Victim 1,” with incidents alleged in her complaint mirroring events detailed in the charging papers. Prosecutors accused Combs of using his billion dollar empire as a “criminal enterprise” to commit a range of offenses, according to the indictment, including “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
They painted a picture of a dangerous and abusive man, who forced romantic partners to submit to his will and sexual fantasies through manipulation, coercion, threats and violence, including once attempting to beat down a woman’s door with a hammer. He is accused of weaponizing his billion dollar empire and a team of loyal staffers to carry out his demands.
Combs’ lead defense attorney Marc Agnifilo admitted that while Combs’ relationship with Ventura was deeply “toxic,” they argued that there was nothing criminal about their relationship and claimed all sexual acts were consensual. Denying accusations of sex trafficking, Agnifilo accused the “federal government” of “coming into this man’s bedroom.” “They are making not just judgments, they are charging him with statutes that, as they said, could put him in jail for life,” Agnifilo told the court.
Ventura’s 2023 suit sparked a domino effect, with more than 40 other women and men filing civil lawsuits against Combs and his alleged associates. The lawsuits come from Bongolan, a former Bad Boy employee, former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, and men and women who allege Combs drugged and/or assaulted them in the 1990s and as recently as July 2024. Combs has maintained his innocence and denied their allegations. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor,” a representative for Combs said in a statement.
A handful of the civil lawsuits come from prominent Houston attorney Tony Buzbee and co-counsel Andrew Van Arsdale. The firms announced in September that they were representing more than 120 clients with claims against Combs and his associates, including accusers who were minors at the time of the alleged encounters. Buzbee is also representing a Jane Doe accuser who claimed that when she was 13 years old she was raped by Combs and Jay-Z during a VMAs afterparty in 2000. (Jay-Z has vehemently denied the accusation and filed an extortion and defamation lawsuit against Buzbee.)
