Crime and Punishment
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Sean “Diddy” Combs is being investigated by the Feds. Reportedly, the disgraced Hip-Hop mogul is the subject of a federal criminal investigation, surely tied to the raids on his homes back in March 2024.
NBC News reports that Diddy’s legal team was notified last week that their client is being investigated by the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Although their sources indicated that a federal grand jury has been empaneled, there is no indication as to what the potential charges may be and when they will land, yet. The source also said that Combs had yet to receive a formal target letter from the SDNY.
This latest development comes a few months after Diddy’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided simultaneously as part of an investigation into alleged sex trafficking and illegal firearms, amongst other crimes. Recently, Diddy put the same Los Angeles home that was raided on the market. TMZ reports he’s seeking $70M for the Holmby Hills home after paying $40M for it back in 2014.
Combs’ fall from grace can be pinpointed to when in November 2023 his ex-girlfriend and former Bad Boy artist Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. The suit was settled a day later, but the dam was broken, with more alleged victims coming forward with lawsuits of their own in the weeks and months since. Diddy would vehemently deny any wrongdoing, but in May 2024, CNN obtained a video that showed him brutally beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel’s hallway. The assault was just as what Cassie had described in her lawsuit.
Diddy then took to Instagram to deliver a widely criticized apology video. In the month since Cassie’s initial lawsuit, entities have been cutting ties with Diddy, including Revolt (where he once served as Chairman of the company he founded), Hulu (which dropped a planned reality show) and Howard University (which rescinded his honorary degree).
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg requested last week that a gag order against Donald Trump remain in place, alluding to the fact several threats have been made against those working on the case. The gag order, which has been in place since April, prevents Trump from issuing threats and attacking witnesses, jurors, court employees, and the relatives of New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
As seen in Mediaite, Alvin Bragg requested the extension on Friday, June 21, pointing to an alarming number of threats — 56 to be exact according to a New York Times report — and this comes as Trump is attempting to have the gag order lifted as he continues his presidential campaign.
Bragg and other prosecutors added that while Justice Merchan would not need to enforce the order for witnesses, the other barriers should remain until Trump’s sentencing on July 11. Trump was convicted by a New York jury back in May on 34 felony counts in the hush money trial.
The muzzling of Trump is typically a difficult task as the former president is known for his unfiltered views and bold tone. Trump has had choice words for Bragg, Justice Merchan, and the justice system, citing that his current legal ordeal is politically motivated as he attempts a return to the White House.
Among those threats mentioned above, an employee of Bragg’s office was doxxed with their home address getting leaked online, and two other individuals connected to the case faced bomb threats. Beyond those instances, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has seen a deluge of emails and phone calls levying all manner of threats.
Trump is stating that the gag order violates his right to free speech and is hoping to have the order lifted as he continues to appeal to his base ahead of the November election. It hasn’t been reported if Justice Merchan will honor the extension request from DA Alvin Bragg or from Donald Trump to lift the order.
We’ve got some reactions from X below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Miami Beach Police Department / MBPD
Travis Scott has just found himself in trouble with the law as the “Highest In The Room” rapper was booked for disorderly intoxication while partying up in Miami.
According to TMZ, Scott was aboard a yacht when he allegedly got into an altercation with other occupants who ultimately had enough of his antics and called the police. When the cops got there they escorted La Flame off the boat and into a waiting vehicle which drove him away. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the situation and Scott reportedly took things up a notch, which landed him behind bars.
Per TMZ:
Cops say Travis told them if he got into the car he was “gonna catch a fade” — and then they say he was driven away … only to return 5 minutes later, with the cops posted up and seeing him attempt to head back to the boat. They say they intercepted him … and claim TS became erratic and belligerent, at which point they arrested him. BTW, they say Travis reeked of booze during all this … hence the disorderly intoxication charge he was booked on.
Sources close to Travis tell us he was hit with a minor charge, which he already posted bond for — in other words, he’s been released from jail at this point. In terms of the actual incident, we’re told he was just partying and that things got a little out of hand between Travis and the staff when he refused to leave … but the situation never got violent.
Travis Scott got arrested for being drunk in public out in Florida — and his mug shot is a sobering one.
Scott was eventually booked into he county jail on early Thursday morning (June 20), which also got him the new mugshot.
You have to wonder what led to Scott getting into it with other passengers on a yacht. Also that’s the most millionaire kind of way to get arrested. Just sayin.’
What do y’all think of Travis Scott getting booked for disorderly intoxication in Miami? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Young Thug and his ongoing RICO trial in Georgia has undergone several twists and turns and the latest instance stands out as one of the most explosive. Earlier this week, attorney Brian Steel, who represents Young Thug in the YSL RICO trial, was held in contempt of court and ordered held for 10 weekends behind bars.
Local outlet 11 Alive reports that Judge Ural Glanville told Brian Steel that Steel’s failure to share the name of his source regarding a private meeting between Glanville, the State, and key witness Kenneth Copeland is why he charged Steel with the action.
The outlet adds that Judge Glanville gave Steel several warnings about being in contempt which Steel bypassed. Instead, the attorney stated that the court was in violation because his client didn’t have any representation at the private meeting.
“I’m going to give you five minutes. If you don’t tell me who it is, I’m going to put you in contempt,” Glanville said. Steel responded with, “I don’t need five minutes.”
After a recess, the judge once more demanded details and Steel refused.
“Mr. Steel, I’m going to ask you again. I need you to tell me how you got this information. This is so sacrosanct to have a conversation in my chambers parroted to you,” Glanville said.
Steel then motioned for a mistrial which the judge denied, and he was taken into custody right after. From there the judge read the terms of Steel’s jail time.
“Those 20 days consisting of every weekend for the next 10 weekends,” Glanville added. “And you’ll be reporting to 901 Rice Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia, 30318. At 7 p.m. on Fridays, you’ll be released on 7 p.m. on Sundays. And it’s to commence this Friday, June the 14th at 7 p.m. and not to end until Sunday, August the 18th, 2024, at 7 p.m.”
A video of the exchange captured by 11 Alive is posted below.
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Photo: CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / Getty
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Corey Harris, a Michigan man due in court virtually for a hearing, certainly didn’t do himself any favors earlier this month before the meeting with the judge. Mr. Harris, who has a suspended license, called into the hearing while driving which sparked the judge to react with disbelief.
Corey Harris, 44, was slated to speak to Washtenaw County Judge Cedric Simpson and called into the hearing via Zoom while driving a vehicle. As reported by Detroit outlet WXYZ, Harris was charged with driving with a suspended license in October 2023. Assistant Public Defender Natalie Pate introduced the case to the judge, and the Zoom call began with Harris simply driving along without any concern for the optics.
Harris caused Judge Simpson to become flabbergasted after he asked the judge for a moment to park his vehicle after he explained he was heading to his doctor’s office. After a moment, Judge Simpson couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.
“No, I’m looking at his record. He doesn’t have a license. He’s suspended and he’s just driving,” Simpson says, trying to maintain his composure. Simpson added, “I don’t even know why he would do that.”
Instead of proceeding with the hearing, Judge Simpson revoked Harris’ bond and ordered Harris to turn himself in by 6 PM that day. As the Detroit News added in its reporting, Harris was set to appear before the court in connection to his suspended license case.
Corey Harris is due back in court on June 5, hopefully taking Uber or getting a lift from a friend.
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Source: Robin L Marshall / Getty
A former diversity manager for both Facebook and Nike just learned that crime doesn’t pay and that freedom is indeed priceless. Barbara Furlow-Smiles was just sentenced to five years in prison for robbing both companies of millions of dollars.
According to CNBC, Furlow-Smiles pleaded guilty to wire fraud back in December of 2023 after being accused of stealing $4.9 million from Facebook by using fake invoices, fraudulent vendors and even cash kickbacks while working for the company. Interestingly enough she continued to partake in such practices when she got herself a new gig over at Nike as their DEI but only made off with a little more than $100,000. Chicken feed when compared to the millions she syphoned off of Facebook but still a lot of money.
Prosecutors in the case asked the judge to sentence her to 6 and a half years as she used the money to fund a pretty lavish lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon, but “luckily” for Smiles, the judge overseeing the case decided to cut the sentence down to five years for her transgressions and ordered her to repay Facebook $4.8 million and Nike $121,000.
CNBC reports:
Prosecutors in their sentencing memo said that in addition to the money Furlow-Smiles stole from the company, Meta lost more than $4.5 million “in addition to other expenses, such as attorney’s fees, which were incurred as a result of Meta having to uncover and investigate her fraud scheme.”
“As Meta notes, ‘the harm from [Furlow-Smiles’] criminal conduct cannot be measured purely in financial terms,‘” prosecutors recounted in their memo. “Her ‘crimes also resulted in anguish amongst those employees that worked closely with her.’”
Nike told prosecutors that she was “entrusted as a leader for [the] company, that she would embody the value of ‘Doing the Right Thing’ which is one of NIKE’s key maxims,” the prosecutor said in their memo. “As Nike explains, ‘[t]o say that Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated our trust would be an understatement. The fraud committed by Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated the trust of and devastated the employees who managed and worked with her.’ ”
We’re just surprised that she continued her scheme at Nike after getting fired from Facebook. Did they not call her past employers for references or anything?
What do y’all think of this multi-million dollar scheme? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Diddy, real name Sean Combs, is already scrambling from a personal image standpoint based on the leak of the video showing Combs violently assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. Amid the chatter surrounding those images, another accuser has filed a lawsuit alleging that Diddy sexually assaulted her in 2003.
As reported by CNN, Crystal McKinney, a winner of MTV’s Model Mission series, was 22 at the time she met Diddy during a Men’s Fashion Week dinner in 2003. McKinney wrote in her complaint that Combs invited her to his nearby recording studio where she claims he allegedly drugged her with marijuana laced with a stronger narcotic.
The details of McKinney’s accounts of the events might be disturbing to some so we urge caution from this point forward. McKinney added that she was already under the influence of alcohol when she was handed the marijuana joint and says she was then led to a bathroom by Combs and forced to perform oral sex on him.
McKinney says she lost consciousness while at the studio and woke up in a cab heading to the home of a designer she was working with at the time and realized that she was sexually assaulted.
Bad Boy Records, Sean John Clothing LLC, and Universal Music Group Inc. are all named as defendants in McKinney’s lawsuit and according to CNN, none of them made any public inference to the filing. The lawsuit was filed over violations noted in the New York Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. It is the sixth such lawsuit, all of which make mention of sexual assault
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Source: Matthew Eisman / Getty
The Feds have reportedly raided multiple homes of Sean “Diddy” Combs. The Bad Boy Records founder’s homes in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami were all seemingly raided simultaneously.
TMZ initially reported that law enforcement rolled up into Diddy’s Beverly Hills home. FOX 11 Los Angeles noted that the raid was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
Allegedly the raids are in connection with a federal sex trafficking investigation. That would explain the reasoning behind an execution of warrants across multiple states at the same time.
Footage of authorities holding rifles and taking people who were in the homes into custody have started making the social media rounds.
Unsubstantiated word is that King Combs and Justin Combs were detained.
Reports SkyFOX:
SkyFOX flew over Combs’ home Monday afternoon and showed federal agents conducting their investigation at his home.
FOX 11’s ground crew at the scene said the home was registered to Bad Boys Films, which is a division of Bad Boy Entertainment, along with one of Combs’ daughters.
SkyFOX also captured images of a few people coming out of the home who were subsequently detained.
Per Homeland Security, “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.”
Check out reactions on X, formerly know as Twitter, in the gallery.
This story is developing.
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Troy Ave has finally faced a judge for his crimes. Last week, he turned himself in for his role in the 2016 shooting at Irving Plaza.
As reported by XXL, the Brooklyn, New York, rapper was summoned to Brooklyn Federal Court Building Friday (Feb. 9). In a video he shared out on social media he detailed his predicament. “About to run up in the court,” he explained. “They might cheat me, you might not see me for a while. But just know the streets is a myth. All them people that was in the car with me, I ended up taking the guns. Somebody shot at me, and instead of me laying down and dying, I’d have been a hero, a martyr, I took the gun and bust back.”
He went on to ask his friends and family for support. “There you have it, here come the consequences. But we don’t cry over spilled milk. You take the lemons and you make lemonade. God is great and paper straight. Y’all keep supporting and keep running it up. And send prayers; prayers count more than anything.” Since then his social media account has been inactive prompting questions on his freedom.
The publication reached out to Troy Ave’s lawyer for clarification and he confirmed that the “All About The Money” rapper is indeed behind bars. “Roland was sentenced on 2/9/24 to one year in jail on his plea to attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the 2nd degree,” the response allegedly said. “Under the law he must serve eight months to satisfy that sentence. Since he previously spent almost two months in jail before he made bail, the remaining balance of time he must serve is a little over six months.”
Troy Ave was charged with attempted murder in connection to the shooting at Irving Plaza where his friend, Ronald “Banga” McPhatter, was killed. In March 2023, media personality Taxstone was convicted on manslaughter, assault and weapon possession charges. He continues to plead his innocence in the murder.
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Nicole Fegan, a defense attorney whose client was connected to the Young Stoner Life list of codefendants, was arrested on unrelated gang charges on Friday (Feb. 16) in Georgia. Fegan, who has several videos online of her discussing her career and connection to clients, is facing multiple gang-related charges that is not connected to the YSL matter despite the chatter online.
The arrest of Nicole Fegan is a fast-developing story so we’ll try to pack in as much as we know currently. Fegan was charged back in February of last year after making contact with the suspect of a Sept. 27, 2022 shooting case that left one man dead.
As local outlet WSB-TV reports, Fegan was arrested for contacting the male suspect in the aforementioned shooting, which contained two victims, in Northwest Atlanta. Fegan was arrested in Gwinnett County and will be transported to Fulton County based on warrants that highlighted she was facing charges of participating in criminal street gang activity and criminal solicitation to commit the offense of tampering with evidence.
Police told WSB-TV that Fegan contacted the suspect by phone but was not part of their legal team thus sparking the warrants for arrest. Fegan alerted the man that there were warrants out for his arrest and that she found out about the warrants during a hearing while instructing the suspect to rid himself of his phone so he couldn’t be tracked digitally.
Fegan did not represent Young Thug in the YSL RICO case. Her client, Tenquarius Mender, had his case split from the wider YSL trial. That said, the arrest of Fegan has caused a stir online with some believing it will have some impact on the YSL RICO trial.
On X, formerly Twitter, the reactions have been pouring in. We’ve got them listed below.
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Photo: @feganlaw / Instagram
11. Just in case there are any mixups.
14. Getting the important questions out of the way.