Sean Combs Arrested in Manhattan Following Grand Jury Indictment

Music mogul Sean Combs, whose career has been upended by sexual assault lawsuits and a federal investigation, was arrested Monday evening at a Manhattan hotel after a grand jury indicted him.
The indictment is sealed, and prosecutors did not announce the charges. But Marc Agnifilo, Mr. Combs' lawyer, said he believed he was being charged with racketeering and sex trafficking.

A statement by Mr. Combs's lawyers said he was saddened by the decision to prosecute because he "has at all times cooperated with respect to the investigation and voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges."

"Sean 'Diddy' Combs is the music icon, self-made entrepreneur, devoted family man, and committed philanthropist who over the past 30 years has spent years building a business empire, raising adoring children, and striving to better the Black community," the statement read. "He is an imperfect man, but he is not a criminal."

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said in a statement posted on social media late Monday that "we expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.".

Mr. Agnifilo said Mr. Combs was arrested at around 8:30 p.m. by officers with Homeland Security Investigations at the Park Hyatt New York hotel, where he was staying, on 57th Street. He is likely to spend the night in custody and be arraigned on Tuesday.

The arrest of Mr. Combs, 54, puts him among the most prominent figures in the music world to face criminal charges for sexual misconduct since R. Kelly, the R&B singer who, following trials in New York and Chicago, was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for child sex crimes, sex trafficking, and racketeering.

Mr. Combs, 54, better known as Diddy and Puff Daddy, was a central figure in the global ascendance of hip-hop as a business phenomenon in the 1990s and 2000s, catapulting rappers and R&B singers such as the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige to stardom. But since last November, he has been under withering public scrutiny after a former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit accusing him of years of sexual and physical abuse.