O n a balmy weekend last September, Sean Combs returned to Harlem to roam his old neighborhood with four of his seven children. He reveled in the attention from passersby who gasped and honked as the billionaire hip-hop mogul chatted and posed for pictures. Perhaps for a moment, he could pretend the most damaging year of his life hadn’t happened, that his former long-term partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura had never filed the crushing sexual-abuse civil lawsuit against him in November 2023 that triggered his personal and professional implosion.
After spending the past year largely out of the spotlight in the comfort of his massive Miami Beach compound — one of two homes raided by Homeland Security officials last March — Combs was suddenly seen sunbathing in Central Park and traipsing around the city. As dusk approached on Monday, Sept. 16, he made a pit stop at the upscale Park Hyatt hotel, where premium suites run as high as $7,000 a night.
Combs was planning on heading back out that evening to look for a more permanent residence in the area. He was aware the Southern District of New York’s criminal investigation into his activities was well underway, and he was ready to turn himself in to avoid a dramatic, guns-blazing arrest, his lawyer said. But seconds after he crossed the lobby threshold, two plainclothes federal agents approached him, holding a 14-page criminal indictment that accused him of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to eng.