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In 2022, Combs was labeled a billionaire for the first time
In 1999 interview, Combs told Forbes that he “wanted to be very, very rich.”
That’s exactly what happened. By 2022, Combs’ net worth had reached $1 billion, according to Zack O’Malley Greenburg, the author of the Jay-Z biography “Empire State of Mind,” who tracks hip-hop’s wealthiest musicians.
And while that figure has no doubt fallen over the past year — he’s given up the publishing rights for Bad Boy’s artists, and his deal with Diageo has been dissolved — he’s still one of the richest in hip-hop.
Combined, he’s earned well over $1 billion, pretax, from the Ciroc deal, his record label, and Sean John. Some of that is tied up in various investments — including less-than-successful ones, like Revolt TV — while a significant amount has been spent on a life of luxury and various toys. He owns a jet that costs eight figures, over $1 million worth of jewelry, and a collection of art that includes a $21 million painting by Kerry James Marshall and works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
His real estate portfolio includes an immense property on Miami’s Star Island, worth $36 million, according to county assessments, and his Los Angeles mansion is on the market for $61.5 million.
While building his empire, Combs amassed “dangerous” power
The indictment against Combs lays out how he used a combination of wealth and influence from his various business endeavors to control his victims and to carry out his crimes. It names Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises, and Combs Global as part of the criminal organization.
“Combs ensured participation from the women by, among other things, obtaining and distributing narcotics to them, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and threatening to cut off the same, and using intimidation and violence,” the indictment says.
Those employees who “demonstrated loyalty to Combs and willingness to conceal his crimes” were enriched, the indictment says.
The claims mirror those in the previous civil suits filed against Combs.
His standing in industry made him “immensely powerful, and immensely dangerous,” Ventura’s attorney wrote in her complaint against Combs.
He “used his money and power to orchestrate extensive efforts to hide the evidence of his abuse,” the complaint continues.
The complaint alleges Combs “lured” Ventura into his circle, using his position as the head of Bad Boy Records. Ventura said after the abuse started, Combs used his money and power to hide it.
She was often afraid to fight back or speak up, knowing he had a powerful network who would defend him, according to the complaint.
“There was no one she could tell about what had happened at the hands of this incredibly powerful man,” the complaint says. “She recognized that she was powerless, and that reporting Mr. Combs to the authorities would not alter Mr. Combs’s status or influence but would merely give Mr. Combs another excuse to hurt her.”
In a separate lawsuit filed in November, Joi Dickerson-Neal alleges that Combs drugged and assaulted her in 1991.
When, at the time, she tried to take legal action, “colleagues told Plaintiff that they were terrified that Combs would retaliate against them and that they would lose future business and music opportunities if they made a statement in support of Plaintiff, as Combs’ star was on the rise in the 1990s,” the complaint says.
Yet another lawsuit, filed in December by an unnamed woman only identified as Jane Doe, accuses Combs of using a private jet to aid in the sex trafficking and gang rape of a high school student.
The federal indictment may be the nail in the coffin for Combs’ reign as a hip-hop powerhouse.
“His career is effectively done,” an entertainment lawyer told BI earlier this year.
Correction: March 26, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Combs’ fashion and lifestyle company. It is Sean John, not Sean Jean.