Sean Combs, a rapper and file government who made headlines when he purchased a $21.1 million Kerry James Marshall portray in 2018, was sentenced in federal courtroom on Friday to 50 months, or 4 years and a couple of months. He was additionally fined $500,000, the utmost quantity allowable by regulation.
The rapper, who additionally glided by the identify Diddy, was accused of racketeering, intercourse trafficking, and transportation for prostitution. He was acquitted of the racketeering and intercourse trafficking expenses, however he was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution, each of which carried most sentences of as much as 10 years every.
All through the trial, which started in Could, Combs maintained his innocence amid testimony from his ex-girlfriend, the singer Cassie Ventura, who alleged years of bodily and sexual abuse. Combs was additionally accused of abuse and sexual assault by an nameless former worker.
The sentencing listening to lasted all day Friday, with prosecutors, Combs’s protection workforce, his six grownup youngsters, and Combs all testifying. Prosecutor Christy Slavik stated Combs is a “grasp puppeteer of his personal picture” and requested the decide not consider that Combs is a modified man, whereas Marc Agnifilo, who led Combs’s protection workforce, stated “this has simply been a devastating, damaging case for this man on the most important of levels,” based on a report by the New York Occasions.
Throughout his 12-minute assertion, Combs referred to as his habits “disgusting, shameful and sick”; stated he had “no person accountable however myself”; and begged the decide for “mercy,” based on the Occasions. He apologized to Ventura earlier than concluding his assertion by saying, “It doesn’t matter what anyone says, I do know that I’m actually sorry for all of it.”
Forward of issuing the sentence, Decide Arun Subramanian, of United States District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, stated that “a historical past of excellent works can’t wash away the file on this case, which exhibits that you just abused the facility and management over the lives of girls who you professed to like,” based on the Occasions.
Subramanian referred to as the prosecution’s request for greater than 11 years “not cheap” however stated the protection’s request for 14 months not sufficient to convey the seriousness of the offense, including that the high-quality was imposed due to Combs’s “immense monetary assets,” which the decide stated, “enabled his crimes,” per the Occasions. He ended his ruling by saying, “To Ms. Ventura and the opposite courageous survivors that got here ahead, I wish to say first: We heard you.”
Combs has extensively been reported to be an artwork collector, although it’s not totally clear what works past the Marshall are in his holdings. That assortment is probably not his for for much longer, nonetheless. Stories from earlier this 12 months talked about that the Division of Justice meant to grab his belongings if he had been to be discovered responsible of intercourse trafficking.
His purchase of the Marshall portray at Sotheby’s in 2018 was perceived as a serious buy. Swizz Beatz, a file producer and artwork collector, told ARTnews that Combs had made the acquisition at his behest.
Combs’s buy of the portray, titled Past Times (1997), set Marshall’s public sale file on the time and made him the costliest residing African American artist. The work is now included in Marshall’s Royal Academy of Arts retrospective in London, the place wall textual content notes that the portray is held in a non-public assortment, with out specifying its proprietor.
The few remaining hints on the contents of Combs’s collections come through an Artnet News report from 2024 that acknowledged that he owns a neon sculpture by Tracey Emin, in addition to works by the sculptor Brett Murray and the inventive studio Random Worldwide, which is greatest identified for its set up Rain Room.
