Sean "Diddy" Combs, the hip-hop mogul who crafted a business empire around his personal brand, was convicted on Wednesday of transporting prostitutes to participate in his drug-fueled sex marathons, but acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, the most serious charges against him, Report informs via NYT.
Though Combs, 55, still faces a potential sentence of as much as 20 years in prison, he and his lawyers were jubilant after the acquittals on the more severe charges in an indictment that accused the famed producer of coercing women into unwanted sex with male prostitutes, aided by a team of pliant employees.
Combs had faced a possible life sentence. Under the transportation charges set by the federal Mann Act, each of the two convictions carries a maximum term of 10 years, and the judge could set lesser sentences to run concurrently.
The mood slumped hours later when Judge Arun Subramanian ordered Combs, who has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest, back to jail until his sentencing.
Federal officials did not comment on the specifics of the verdict but defended their decision to bring the charges in a case that the defense had mocked as an effort to criminalize private, consensual sexual conduct.