Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security on Monday raided homes in the Los Angeles area and Miami that a person with knowledge of the case said were connected to Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul who has been accused of sexual assault and sex trafficking in multiple civil lawsuits over the last several months.
In a statement on Monday, in response to questions about news reports of a raid on Mr. Combs’s residences, Homeland Security Investigations said: “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
A spokesperson for Mr. Combs did not respond to a request for comment.
The criminal inquiry was being conducted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a law-enforcement official said. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the Southern District, declined to comment.
Homeland Security Investigations did not say in its statement who was the target of the investigation. Video from Fox 11 (KTTV), a local television news station in Los Angeles, showed armed officers entering a home in the Holmby Hills area of the city, which a law-enforcement official said was connected to Mr. Combs.
The raids were a stunning development in the career of Combs, 54, also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy — a producer, label executive and occasional rapper who has been one of the most influential and widely recognized figures in the music business over the last 30 years.
He played an integral role in the transformation of hip-hop into a global commercial force, crafting hits and larger-than-life personas for rap and R&B performers like the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige, and making smash hits himself with songs like “I’ll Be Missing You” (1997), a ballad to the Notorious B.I.G. after his killing in a drive-by shooting, which featured Faith Evans, the rapper’s widow, and sampled the Police’s hit “Every Breath You Take.”
But Mr. Combs has also been dogged for decades by accusations of violence. In November, he was sued for sexual assault by Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend, who was also signed to his label, Bad Boy, as the performing artist Cassie.
In her suit, Ms. Ventura accused Mr. Combs of forcing her to engage in sexual activity with male prostitutes over a period of years. The suit said that as a result of those encounters, which took place in a number of cities across the United States, Ms. Ventura was a victim of sex trafficking.
Ms. Ventura’s civil suit was settled in just one day, with her and Mr. Combs saying their dispute had been resolved “amicably.”
But her suit was followed by several more cases, each accusing Mr. Combs of sexual assault. In one case filed last month, a music producer, Rodney Jones, said that Mr. Combs had made unwanted sexual contact with him, and forced him to hire prostitutes and participate in sex acts with them.
Federal investigators in New York have been leading the investigation, and have been conducting interviews with potential witnesses related to Mr. Combs for several months, according to a person familiar with the interviews.
Mr. Combs has denied the accusations against him. In December, after an anonymous woman filed a suit accusing Mr. Combs and two other men of raping her in a New York recording studio in 2003, when she was 17, the music mogul said: “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged.”
After Mr. Jones’s suit last month, Shawn Holley, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, said Mr. Jones is “nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 million lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday,” and called his accusations “pure fiction.” Ms. Holley and two other lawyers for Mr. Combs also did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
In a statement on Monday, Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represents Ms. Ventura and the anonymous woman who sued Mr. Combs alleging the assault at a New York studio, said: “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. and Chelsia Rose Marcius from New York.
