Latest news with #BadBoy
Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
One Love Asia Festival will return to S'pore on Sept 13 and 14
Taiwanese diva A-mei (left) and Taiwanese singer Angela Chang will headline the first night and second night of One Love Festival Singapore 2025 respectively. PHOTOS: IMC LIVE GLOBAL One Love Asia Festival will return to S'pore on Sept 13 and 14 The One Love Asia Festival music festival will take place on Sept 13 and 14, the fourth time the event is held here. This year's edition will be held at the Bayfront Event Space, where it also took place in 2022 and 2023. The 2024 edition was held at the Padang. Taiwanese diva A-mei, known for hits such as Bad Boy (1997) and Three Days And Three Nights (1999), will headline the first night of the festival. Other acts slated to take the stage on Sept 13 are Mandopop stars Yoga Lin, Kasiwa, Chih Siou and Saya Chang from Taiwan, Chinese-Canadian singer Kelly Yu, and Malaysian singer Firdhaus Farmizi, who also sings in Mandarin. The second night's lineup will be helmed by Taiwanese singer Angela Chang, best known for the uplifting track Invisible Wings (2006). Taiwanese boy band 5566, Hong Kong singer MC Cheung Tinfu and the Simply Live Band, featuring Singaporean singer Jordin Tan, will also take the stage on Sept 14. Chih Siou, who last performed here in April at live music venue Wire Entertainment, and Kasiwa, who won Best Indigenous Language Singer at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards in 2023, will be performing at the festival for the first time. Alongside the musical performances, this year's festival will also showcase visual arts, such as Chinese artist Huang Yulong's Upward exhibition of giant sculptures. Besides taking place in Singapore, One Love Asia Festival has also been held in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Chengdu. The upcoming Singapore edition has been titled 'Volume 7'. It is produced by IMC Group Asia, and about 24,000 fans are expected to attend across two days. Mr Adrian Leong, chief executive officer of IMC Group Asia, said in a statement: 'Our vision has always been for One Love Asia Festival to become a flagship Mandopop event throughout Asia – an intersection where both artistes and fans coalesce to create an impactful shared experience.' Tickets will be available from June 23, at 11am. One Love Festival Singapore 2025 Where: Bayfront Event Space, 12A Bayfront Avenue When: Sept 13 and 14, doors open at 3pm Admission: $198 (single-day) and $338 (two-day) via Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Inside Diddy's Bad Boy empire of threats, violence and bribes. What court revelations expose
At its height, Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment was a show business powerhouse, mixing music, video, fashion, liquor and style into a business that made Combs a billionaire. Combs won praise for his visionary growth and brand management. But federal prosecutors have another word for Bad Boy: a racketeering enterprise. The federal trial in New York City includes an allegation that Combs was involved in mob family-style racketeering with coercion, kidnapping, threats and beatings done to cover up a pattern of sexual assaults, sex trafficking and prostitution. The mogul has publicly and defiantly maintained his innocence even before his arrest last September. Read more: Sean Combs' inner circle reveals a world of guns, abuse, kidnapping and death threats The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as 'freak-offs.' Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to 'keep them obedient and compliant' during the performances, prosecutors say. Combs' alleged 'criminal enterprise' threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In bringing so-called RICO charges, prosecutors in opening statements said Combs was helped by a cadre of company employees, security staff and aides. They allegedly helped organize the freak-offs and then covered up the incidents. Thus far, Combs is the only one facing criminal charges related to the investigation. Have prosecutors made the case? Prosecutors have so far called nearly 30 witnesses to the stand in Manhattan and are expected to finish up with witnesses this week. They include three women who described graphic sexual assaults, including a woman the defense acknowledged was the key witness, Combs' onetime lover, Casandra "Cassie" Ventura. It was Ventura's lawsuit in 2023 that set off the unraveling of the Combs enterprise with its details of sex, violence and freak-offs. His last former girlfriend, referred to only as Jane in court, described how the freak-offs and coerced sex continued despite the lawsuit and a raid by Homeland Security Investigations until his arrest. She texted Combs pages of Ventura's lawsuit immediately after it was filed. 'I've been crying for three days and am under stress from reading all of this. I keep having nightmares about forced nights and all the times I felt like I couldn't say no. I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma,' she wrote, according to Legal Affairs and Trials. Read more: 'Horrible and disgusting': Cassie's graphic testimony of abuse leaves Sean 'Diddy' Combs' fate hanging in balance On another occasion, she said she texted his chief of staff about the threats he made, writing, 'He just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has of me on two phones. He said that he would expose me and send them to my child's father.' Jane is one of three women whose testimony is at the center of the trial, the others being Ventura and a former employee testifying under the pseudonym Mia, who also testified she was sexually assaulted. Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, there are 35 specific offenses, including kidnapping, murder, bribery and extortion, and federal prosecutors need to show a pattern involving at least two overt acts as part of a criminal enterprise. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said that to prove RICO, the prosecution must show the existence of not just criminal activity but an actual criminal enterprise. People typically think of the mob, street gangs or drug cartels. But any loose association of two or more people is enough, like Combs' entourage, she said. They also have to show a pattern of racketeering or two or more RICO predicate acts over a 10-year period. That's why the evidence of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering and prostitution is important to the prosecution's case, she said. It will be up to jurors to determine if federal prosecutors proved the RICO charge. R&B singer Ventura, who had a long relationship with Combs, was an early key witness in the prosecution's case. Ventura testified she felt "trapped" in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse by him, and that the relationship involved 11 years of alleged beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape. She claimed Combs threatened to leak videos of her sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers while drug-intoxicated and glistening with baby oil as he watched and orchestrated the freak-offs. Read more: Sean 'Diddy' Combs faces sexual abuse, exploitation allegations from 120 people, including minors One of those freak-offs led to an infamous hotel beating, Ventura testified. Video footage from that March 2016 night shows Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room. A second angle from another camera captures Combs throwing a vase toward her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip and a bruise that prosecutors showed was still visible during a movie premiere two days later, where she donned sunglasses and heavy makeup on the red carpet. A cover-up then ensued, according to prosecutors. Ventura stated that the police visited her apartment. She answered a few of their questions, but told the jury she still wanted to protect Combs at the time. 'I would not say who I was talking about,' she told the jury. 'In that moment, I did not want to hurt him in that way. There was too much going on. It was a lot.' Eddie Garcia, the InterContinental Hotel security guard, testified that Combs gave him a brown paper bag containing $100,000 in cash for the video. Garcia said after his supervisor agreed to sell the video recording, he met with Combs, Combs' chief of staff Kristina Khorram and a bodyguard. After Garcia raised concerns about the police, he said Combs called Ventura on FaceTime, handed him the phone and told Ventura to tell Garcia that she also wanted the video "to go away." After that, Garcia said he took the money and split it with co-workers. Read more: Accusing a pop superstar of sex trafficking: What R. Kelly case tells us about Sean 'Diddy' Combs Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to Combs, recalled a 2011 violent incident with Combs. Clark told jurors Combs forced her from her apartment at gunpoint to go with him to musician Kid Cudi's home in December 2011. Once there, Combs and Clark entered the empty house, and then Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, showed up. To avoid getting law enforcement involved, Clark testified, Combs ordered her to call Ventura, who was at that time Combs' ex-girlfirend, and said they need to convince Cudi not to snitch to the cops. "If you guys don't convince him of that, I'll kill all you m—,' Clark quoted Combs saying. Cudi testified that his Porsche was later firebombed in his driveway with a Molotov cocktail. Ventura wasn't Combs' only alleged sex crime victim. Mia, an assistant testifying under that name, described years of sexual abuse, rape and threats. Combs, she said, first sexually assaulted her at his 40th birthday party in New York in 2009, shortly after she began working for him. In the year that followed, she slept in a bedroom at his home, where she was not allowed to lock the door. Through tears, she testified he raped her. "I was frozen. I didn't react. I was terrified and confused and ashamed and scared." Another alleged attack occurred in a bedroom closet where she said Combs grabbed her head and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Under cross-examination, she said she did not initially tell federal prosecutors that Combs sexually assaulted her and acknowledged sending Combs loving messages in the years after the alleged attacks. Jane, his most recent ex-girlfriend, described how she endured drug-fueled sex marathons right up until the hip-hop titan's arrest. Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Ventura, testified that Combs dangled her over a 17-story balcony and tossed her onto balcony furniture in September 2016. 'I will never forget him holding me on that balcony," she said as a defense lawyer challenged the date she provided with evidence of Combs being elsewhere at a hotel across the country. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Inside Diddy's Bad Boy empire of threats, violence and bribes. What court revelations expose
At its height, Sean 'Diddy' Combs's Bad Boy Entertainment was a show business powerhouse, mixing music, video, fashion, liquor and style into a business that made Combs a billionaire. Combs won praise for his visionary growth and brand management. But federal prosecutors have another word for Bad Boy: A racketeering enterprise. The federal trial in New York City includes an allegation that Combs was involved in mob family-style racketeering with coercion, kidnapping, threats, and beatings done to cover up a pattern of sexual assaults, sex trafficking and prostitution. The mogul has publicly and defiantly maintained his innocence even before his arrest last September. The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as 'freak-offs.' Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to 'keep them obedient and compliant' during the performances, prosecutors say. Combs' alleged 'criminal enterprise' threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In bringing so-called RICO charges, prosecutors in opening statements said Combs was helped by a cadre of company employees, security staff and aides. They allegedly helped organize the 'freak-offs' and then covered up the incidents. Thus far, Combs is the only one facing criminal charges related to the investigation. Have prosecutors made the case? Prosecutors have so far called nearly 30 witnesses to the stand in Manhattan and are expected to finish up with its witnesses this week. They include three women who described graphic sexual assaults, including a woman the defense acknowledged was the key witness, Combs's onetime lover, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura. It was Ventura's lawsuit in 2023 that set off the unraveling of the Combs enterprise with its details of sex, violence and freak-offs. His last former girlfriend, referred to only as Jane in court, described how the freak-offs and coerced sex continued despite the lawsuit and a raid by Homeland Security Investigations until his arrest. She texted Combs pages of Ventura's lawsuit immediately after it was filed. 'I've been crying for three days and am under stress from reading all of this. I keep having nightmares about forced nights and all the times I felt like I couldn't say no. I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma,' she wrote, according to Legal Affairs and Trials. On another occasion, she said she texted his chief of staff about the threats he made, writing 'he just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has of me on two phones. He said that he would expose me and send them to my child's father.' Jane is one of three women whose testimony is at the center of the trial. The others being Ventura and a former employee testifying under the pseudonym Mia, who also testified she was sexually assaulted. Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, there are 35 specific offenses, including kidnapping, murder, bribery, and extortion and federal prosecutors need to show a pattern involving at least two overt acts as part of a criminal enterprise. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said that to prove RICO, the prosecution must show the existence of not just criminal activity but an actual criminal enterprise. People typically think of the mob, street gangs, or drug cartels. But any loose association of two or more people is enough, like Combs' entourage, she said. They also have to show a pattern of racketeering or two or more RICO predicate acts over a 10-year period. That's why the evidence of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering, and prostitution is important to the prosecution's case, she said. It will be up to jurors to determine if federal prosecutors proved the RICO charge. R&B singer Cassandra 'Cassie' Ventura, who had a long relationship with Combs, was an early key witness in the prosecution's case. Ventura testified she felt 'trapped' in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse by him, and that the relationship involved 11 years of alleged beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape. She claimed Combs threatened to leak videos of her sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers while drug-intoxicated and glistening with baby oil as he watched and orchestrated the freak-offs. One of those freak-offs led to an infamous hotel beating, Ventura testified. Video footage from that March 2016 night shows Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room. A second angle from another camera captures Combs throwing a vase toward her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip, and a bruise that prosecutors showed was still visible during a movie premiere two days later, where she donned sunglasses and heavy makeup on the red carpet. A cover-up then ensued, according to prosecutors. Ventura stated that the police visited her apartment. She answered a few of their questions, but told the jury she still wanted to protect Combs at the time. 'I would not say who I was talking about,' she told the jury. 'In that moment, I did not want to hurt him in that way. There was too much going on. It was a lot.' Eddie Garcia, the Intercontinental Hotel security guard, testified that Combs gave him a brown paper bag containing $100,000 in cash for the video. Garcia said after his supervisor agreed to sell the video recording, he met with Combs, Combs' chief of staff Kristina Khorram and a bodyguard. After Garcia raised concerns about the police, he said Combs called Ventura on FaceTime, handed him the phone and told Ventura to tell Garcia that she also wanted the video 'to go away.' After that, Garcia said he took the money and split it with coworkers. Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to Combs, recalled a 2011 violent incident with Combs. Clark told jurors Combs forced her from her apartment at gunpoint to go with him to musician Kid Cudi's home in December 2011. Once there, Combs and Clark entered the empty house, and then Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, showed up. To avoid getting law enforcement involved, Clark testified, Combs ordered her to call Ventura, who was at that time Combs' ex-girlfirend, and said they need to convince Cudi not to snitch to the cops. 'If you guys don't convince him of that, I'll kill all you m....,' Clark quoted Combs saying. Cudi testified that his Porsche was later firebombed in his driveway with a Molotov cocktail. Ventura wasn't Combs' only alleged sex crime victim. Mia, an assistant testifying under that name, described years of sexual abuse, rape and threats. Combs, she said, first sexually assaulted her at his 40th birthday party in New York in 2009, shortly after she began working for him. In the year that followed, she slept in a bedroom at his home, where she was not allowed to lock the door. Through tears she testified he raped her. 'I was frozen. I didn't react. I was terrified and confused and ashamed and scared.' Another alleged attack occurred in a bedroom closet where she said Combs grabbed her head and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Under cross-examination, she said she did not initially tell federal prosecutors that Combs sexually assaulted her and acknowledged sending Combs loving messages in the years after the alleged attacks. Jane, his most recent ex-girlfriend described how she endured drug-fueled sex marathons right up until the hip-hop titan's arrest. Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Ventura, testified that Combs dangled her over a 17-story balcony and tossed her onto balcony furniture in September 2016. 'I will never forget him holding me on that balcony,' she said as a defense lawyer challenged the date she provided with evidence of Combs's being elsewhere at a hotel across the country.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial sees juror dismissed after 'conflicting statements'
A juror has been dismissed from Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial after he was accused of giving inconsistent answers about his residency during jury selection A juror in Sean 'Diddy' Combs ' trial has been dismissed after over a month of the rapper's high-profile federal trial on charges that include racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, following concerns about his honesty. Lead prosecutor Maurene Comey had raised issues last week calling for a dismissal due to a "lack of candour" from the juror. Initially hesitant, US District Judge Arun Subramanian later determined the 41 year old male juror was not forthright about where he lived, having given conflicting statements regarding his residence in both the Bronx and New Jersey. Judge Subramanian expressed reservations, commenting that he had "concerns about his candour and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the panel." Jurors partaking in the trial, located in Manhattan, must be residents from the Southern District of New York, encompassing Manhattan, the Bronx, and parts of the Hudson Valley. Subsequently, the judge ruled that the juror be relieved of duty, appointing an alternate— a 57 year old white architect from Westchester County — in his stead. Combs' defence team, however, objected to the removal; one of his solicitors, Alexandra Shapiro, considered it a "thinly veiled effort to dismiss" a Black juror, while fellow counsel Xavier Donaldson contended that this change would result in a less diverse jury. The identities of the jurors - a mix of eight men and four women whose ages range from their 30s to their 70s - are being kept under wraps. In addition, six alternate jurors were picked comprising four men and two women. Sean Combs, better known as the founder of Bad Boy records, has strenuously denied any involvement in crimes of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, pleading not guilty to all charges. The potential penalties for these allegations are severe, with Combs facing anywhere from 15 years to a lifetime behind bars if found guilty. Tensions rose earlier this month when the presiding judge gave a stark warning to Diddy during proceedings, admonishing him for an alleged attempt to communicate non-verbally with the jury by nodding at them during Bryana Bongolan's testimony, a friend of his former partner Cassie Ventura. With the jury absent from the courtroom over lunch, Judge Subramanian pointedly addressed Combs' legal representative: "I was very clear there should be no facial expressions to the jury, and I could not have been clearer. "There was a line of questioning where your client was nodding vigorously and looking at the jury ... [This was] absolutely unacceptable. "This can't continue or I will give a limiting instruction you won't like, or other measures including barring your client from the courtroom. Do you understand?". Marc Agnifilo, who is representing Combs, assured the judge that such conduct would cease immediately.
Perth Now
4 days ago
- Perth Now
Juror on Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial dismissed by judge
A juror in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial has been dismissed. The 55-year-old rapper is more than a month into his federal trial for charges including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but last week, lead prosecutor Maurene Comey requested one of the jurors be dismissed for a "lack of candour". And while US District Judge Arun Subramanian had initially said on Friday (13.06.25) he was unsure an inquiry was needed, on further review, he has concluded the 41-year-old man had given inconsistent answers regarding his residency, having alluded to living in both the Bronx and New Jersey. The judge said he had "concerns about his candour and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the panel.' The trial is taking place in Manhattan, meaning jurors must be residents of the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, the Bronx, and parts of the Hudson Valley. The judge has dismissed the juror and he will be replaced with an alternate, a 57-year-old architect from Westchester County, who is white. The defense had argued against the juror's dismissal, with one of Combs' attorneys, Alexandra Shapiro, claiming the attempt to have him removed was a "thinly veiled effort to dismiss" a Black member of the panel, and another lawyer, Xavier Donaldson arguing dismissal would make the jury less diverse. The identity of the jurors - eight men and four women - are not being made public, but their ages range from their 30s to their 70s. Six alternates were also chosen, of which four are men and two women. The Bad Boy records founder has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he faces between 15 years and life in prison. Earlier this month, the judge warned Diddy to stop "nodding" in the direction of the jury after he was allegedly seen doing so during the testimony of Bryana Bongolan, a friend of his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. During a lunch break while the jury were out of the court room, Judge Subramanian told Combs' attorneys: "I was very clear there should be no facial expressions to the jury, and I could not have been clearer. "There was a line of questioning where your client was nodding vigorously and looking at the jury ... [This was] absolutely unacceptable ... "This can't continue or I will give a limiting instruction you won't like, or other measures including barring your client from the courtroom. Do you understand?" Combs' lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the judge it will not happen again.
