- Sean "Diddy" Combs' legal history is extensive. Fortune looked at hundreds of pages of court documents and police reports and contacted 28 individuals involved in lawsuits against him to investigate the breadth of the actions taken against him. These include three arrests, two guilty pleas, and more than 24 lawsuits alleging wrongful death, violence, harm, and threats over 30 years. Combs denies wrongdoing.
On his way to becoming a music industry mogul with three Grammys and, at his peak, a billion-dollar net worth, Sean “Diddy” Combs often found himself in courtrooms or on the receiving end of legal action. Since age 22—before Combs founded Bad Boy Records, which would become the career cornerstone of the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige, among others—Combs has been named a defendant in dozens of lawsuits.
Today, Combs sits in a Brooklyn jail, awaiting a May trial on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty. He also faces 30 civil lawsuits from former employees alleging Combs assaulted them or coerced them into sexual acts. Combs has denied all the allegations against him. Lawsuits are still piling up: Personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee and his team, who are representing several plaintiffs in these civil suits, received 3,000 calls from prospective clients, and he predicts up to 300 civil cases could be filed against Combs.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement following his arrest on three felony charges. “Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
(Combs’ legal team offered the same statement for a Fortune piece on Combs published in December 2024.)
Fortune looked at hundreds of pages of court documents and police reports and contacted 28 individuals involved in lawsuits against Combs and within his circle to investigate the breadth of legal action taken against him. These include three arrests, two guilty charges, and more than 24 lawsuits alleging wrongful death, violence, harm, or threatening behavior that span more than 30 years of Combs’ career. Combs denied wrongdoing in the majority of lawsuits detailed below and settled at least 11 of them.
Combs’ legal team did not respond to Fortune’s specific inquiries about the litigation he faced earlier in his career.
1991
Combs, alongside rapper Dwight “Heavy D” Myers, organized a celebrity basketball game and concert at City College of New York, with some proceeds to be donated to an AIDS education and advocacy charity. The event on Dec. 28, 1991, was planned at the last minute and had disorganized security; rowdy crowds resulted in a stampede killing nine people and injuring 29, according to a 1992 report by New York deputy mayor Milton Mollen.
Mollen found Combs in part responsible for the tragedy, and six years later, New York Court of Claims judge Louis Benza found Combs and Heavy D half liable for the stampede, with City University of New York, of which CCNY is a part, also 50% responsible. The hip-hop producer denied responsibility for the stampede and for overselling the event and said in a New York Claims Court testimony the college was responsible for the stampede the Daily News reported in 1998. By 1999, Combs had settled eight of nine wrongful death suits filed against him, paying about $600,000.
Take a look at Fortune’s investigation into the stampede here.
1995
At a Mary J. Blige concert on June 25, 1995, at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston Salem, N.C., two bodyguards hired by Combs (who managed Blige) assaulted Cedrick Bobby Lemon. Lemon, 25, was hospitalized and sustained fractures to his right ankle. He received three surgeries and had seven permanent screws inserted in his leg, forcing him to use crutches for six months while he recuperated. A judge originally ordered Combs to pay Lemon $2.45 million in damages by default after he did not show up to court. But Lemon also failed to provide the court necessary materials to receive the default judgement, and the lawsuit was overturned.
Combs was issued an arrest warrant for allegedly flashing a gun during a confrontation with a man in Georgetown University’s New South dining hall. Combs was visiting the college to disperse promotional material when an employee asked him to leave. According to the arrest warrant, the student newspaper reported, Combs allegedly asked the employee what time his shift ended, waited for him in a parking lot, and then opened up his coat, revealed a gun, and smiled slyly at the employee. The charges against Combs were dropped.
1996
Combs was found guilty and accepted the misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief after threatening New York Post photographer Gary Miller with a gun. He paid a $1,000 fine. Combs allegedly confronted Miller after the photographer took pictures of Combs’ company cars in 1995 by grabbing Miller’s film and brandishing a pistol at him.
1999
In April, Combs and two bodyguards beat rival music executive Steven Stoute, who managed hip-hop star Nas, with a bottle of champagne, a chair, and a telephone. The two producers got into an argument after Stoute mistakenly sent MTV a copy of the music video for Nas’s “Hate Me Now,” which featured a cameo of Combs on a cross. Combs took issue with the scene and burst into Stoute’s office to attack him. He was initially charged with felony assault and criminal mischief. After Combs publicly apologized, Stoute dropped the charges, and Combs instead pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of harassment. He reportedly paid Stoute $500,000 in a settlement and was sentenced to one day of anger management classes.
Combs was arrested on Dec. 29 on charges of gun possession. He, then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones, and rapper protégé Jamal “Shyne” Barrow got into an altercation at Club New York in Manhattan. The argument resulted in a shooting that injured three people. Combs allegedly fired one shot at the ceiling of the club and, along with Lopez and Jones, fled in a car, inside which police later found a stolen gun. Combs allegedly bribed his chauffeur Wardel Fenderson to take responsibility for the gun found in the car. Combs denied charges and was acquitted, but Barrow was convicted of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and weapons possession. He spent nearly nine years in prison.
In 2011, Combs reportedly settled a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit with three people involved in the Club New York shooting, including Natania Reuben, who sought damages for medical complications from having seven bullet fragments lodged around her nose.
2002
John Houshmand hosted Combs, Bad Boy, and filmmaker Nick Quested at his Manhattan property to shoot Combs' "I Need a Girl" music video in February. Houshmand sued Combs for breaching their contract and damaging his property—including walls, floors, and furniture—during the shoot, which cost him over $39,000 in repairs that he claimed his insurance did not cover. The case was discontinued with prejudice.
2003
Bad Boy Entertainment cofounder and former president Kirk Burrowes sued Combs in July, alleging Combs coerced him into signing over his stake in the company. Burrowes claims Combs and his lawyer Kenneth Meiselas entered his office and threatened him with a baseball bat to give up his 25% stake in the company. Burrowes was fired from Bad Boy in 1997 and alleges he did not receive his shares of the company’s profit from before he was terminated. Combs denied the allegations, and the $25 million lawsuit was tossed in 2006 because the events outlined in the case exceeded the statute of limitations.
2004
Former Bad Boy Records driver Damien Vazquez sued Combs in June for allegedly attempting to coerce him into confessing he stole one of Combs’ Grammy awards. Vazquez worked at Bad Boy for two years before being laid off in 2002 and later rehired in 2003, but alleged he was never paid for his time working at Bad Boy. In 2004, Combs reached out to Vazquez asking about a stolen Grammy award, and Vazquez responded saying he knew an employee who had access to the Grammy, but did not tell Combs who it was. Vazquez was later allegedly asked to visit a police precinct for unknown reasons. He claimed he was placed in a holding cell by a police officer. Vazquez, who is diabetic, allegedly passed out in his jail cell after being refused food and was sent to the emergency room. He was allegedly handcuffed on a stretcher in an ambulance and was admitted to a nearby emergency room. Vazquez alleges that the officer never read him his Miranda rights and conspired with Combs to try to make him falsely confess he stole the Grammy. The suit was dismissed after a judge found insufficient evidence, and Vazquez chose not to refile the case.
2007
Real estate agent Gerard Rechnitzer sued Combs in March for allegedly pushing him and his girlfriend at a Hollywood nightclub. Rechnitzer visited Teddy's, a night club at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, with his girlfriend and friend group. As he was leaving and stopped to go to the bathroom, he saw his friends, one of whom indicated his girlfriend was speaking with Combs, who was surrounded by security. Rechnitzer claimed he approached the car and Combs, without provocation, allegedly yelled at Rechnitzer and then attacked him, causing him to "fly backward several feet," hitting a parked car, according to the lawsuit. Combs then allegedly pushed Rechnitzer's girlfriend and spat at another woman in the friend group. Combs allegedly climbed partially out of his car and made a menacing glance at Rechnitzer as he drove away. The hip-hop producer’s lawyer at the time denied the allegations. Rechnitzer sought unspecified damages in the suit, and the parties settled on undisclosed terms the next year.
Hip-hop promoter James Waldon filed a $5 million lawsuit against Combs in October, claiming Combs’ three bodyguards assaulted him outside The Box nightclub in Manhattan. Waldon said in the suit he approached Combs at the club and asked him to view a hip-hop performance of an up-and-coming group. Combs’ bodyguard allegedly punched Waldon and knocked him onto the table, causing mouth and teeth injuries. The case was discontinued with prejudice.
One week later, Combs allegedly assaulted 31-year-old Steven Acevedo outside another Manhattan night club, Kiosk. Combs was reportedly dating Acevedo’s ex-girlfriend at the time and after exchanging insults and comments about the woman, Combs allegedly punched Acevedo twice in the face. Acevedo reportedly filed a police report and police considered a misdemeanor charge of third degree assault after an investigation, but Combs was not arrested, and Acevedo did not press charges. Combs’ lawyer denied wrongdoing at the time.
2011
In May, stagehand Kevin Faraday filed a lawsuit against Combs allegeding he was hit in the stomach with a microphone stand at a Live Nation "Making the Band" concert Combs was organizing. Faraday, who worked for a stage management company contracted to set up the concert, claimed an African American male in all-black clothing grabbed a microphone off the stage of the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York where the event was taking place, and struck Faraday in the abdomen with it. Faraday said he did not see for certain who assaulted him, but claimed he sustained “severe and serious injuries” that required medical attention. The case was discontinued.
2015
Combs was arrested at UCLA’s Acosta Athletic Training Complex in June on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Combs’ son Justin was a football player at the college at the time. Combs allegedly got into an argument with the football coach and grabbed him and tried to strike him with a kettlebell, a rounded weight with a handle on its top. The Los Angeles District Attorney decided against pursuing felony charges.
