Sean 'Diddy' Combs stood in a Manhattan courtroom in July 2025 to hear his sentence: 50 months in federal prison and a $500,000 fine. The once-dominant force in hip-hop and music production had been convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution under the Mann Act. His fall from grace marked one of the most dramatic downfalls in entertainment history.

Combs, born November 4, 1969, in New York, built a career spanning decades under various professional names—Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and simply Diddy. He became synonymous with hip-hop's commercial ascendancy and produced some of the genre's biggest hits. Yet by September 2024, federal agents arrested him at a Los Angeles hotel, and prosecutors laid out an explosive set of allegations.

The charges painted a picture of organized criminal activity. Federal prosecutors accused Combs of operating a criminal enterprise involving sex trafficking, racketeering, abuse of women, threats, coercion, forced labor, kidnapping, and bribery. Each allegation suggested a systematic pattern rather than isolated incidents. Combs denied all charges and pleaded not guilty, setting the stage for a high-profile trial.

The case gained additional weight from documented evidence. In 2016, surveillance footage surfaced showing Combs physically assaulting his former girlfriend, Cassie (Casandra Ventura), in a hotel hallway. When confronted with the video, Combs admitted to the domestic violence incident but offered no explanation for the broader allegations against him.