Prosecutors filed an expanded indictment against Sean Combs on Thursday in which they accused the music mogul of coercing two additional women into commercial sex acts and of dangling a woman over an apartment balcony.
Mr. Combs, 55, has been held in a Brooklyn jail since the initial indictment in September charged him with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have asserted his innocence.
The new allegations are part of a superseding indictment that was returned by a grand jury, according to documents filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Most of the new indictment mirrors the one initially filed, but it accuses Mr. Combs of coercing two additional women into sex acts, citing an anti-sex-trafficking law known as the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of people for prostitution or criminal sexual activity. The government has accused Mr. Combs of hiring male prostitutes to participate in drug-fueled sexual encounters known as freak-offs.
In a statement, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, Marc Agnifilo, noted that the new indictment involves no new charged offenses. The filing includes fresh allegations of criminal behavior, but Mr. Combs continues to face three counts: racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and violating the Mann Act.
“The prosecution’s theory remains flawed,” Mr. Agnifilo said. “The government has added the ridiculous theory that two of Mr. Combs’s former girlfriends were not girlfriends at all, but were prostitutes. Mr. Combs is as committed as ever to fighting these charges and winning at trial.”
The original indictment referred only to a “Victim-1,” whose accusations aligned closely with those of Casandra Ventura, the singer and former girlfriend of Mr. Combs whose 2023 lawsuit, which Mr. Combs settled, sparked the criminal inquiry. Now, the indictment refers to “Victim-2” and “Victim-3,” whose identities are not publicly known.
Prosecutors have accused Mr. Combs of giving drugs to the victims to keep them “obedient and compliant” and of recording the sexual encounters and keeping the recordings, sometimes unbeknown to the victims.
“In connection with the commercial sex acts, Combs provided the victims with, among other things, monetary payments, career opportunities, and payment of rent and housing expenses,” the indictment says.
Mr. Combs’s lawyers have asserted that all sexual encounters referenced by the government were consensual, and in the case of Ms. Ventura, part of a “loving, at-times toxic, long-term relationship between two adults.”
The newly filed indictment also extends the period of the alleged racketeering conspiracy — which, prosecutors say, involves a “criminal organization” responsible for crimes including kidnapping and bribery — back to 2004, instead of 2008. According to prosecutors, employees and associates of Mr. Combs helped enable the sex trafficking and conceal violence and abuse, and engaged in arson and multiple acts of kidnapping. The new indictment adds an allegation of kidnapping based in New York and asserts that during one instance of kidnapping, Mr. Combs carried and displayed a firearm.
As part of the alleged racketeering conspiracy, prosecutors have accused Mr. Combs of a slew of drug offenses, including the distribution of — or intent to distribute — cocaine, oxycodone and ketamine. The expanded indictment adds methamphetamine and psilocin, a hallucinogen.
The allegations of dangling a woman off a balcony align with claims in a lawsuit filed last year by a woman named Bryana Bongolan, who said she met Mr. Combs because she was friends with Ms. Ventura. Ms. Bongolan’s suit says that she was sleeping in Ms. Ventura’s apartment in early 2016 when Mr. Combs began banging on the door and shouting. The suit says he entered the apartment, grabbed her and lifted her up and over the banister. She says in the court papers that she did not know what motivated him, and that she had noticed a “disturbing pattern of abusive behavior” toward Ms. Ventura.
Mr. Combs’s legal team said in a statement in response to her suit that he “firmly denies these serious allegations and remains confident they will ultimately be proven baseless.” He is currently fighting more than three dozen lawsuits filed since Ms. Ventura went public with her claims.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers have mentioned potential additional victims in court filings before. In one filing, prosecutors cited a text message sent by “Victim-2” in which she said that Mr. Combs “just threatened me about my sex tapes,” describing herself as “heavily drugged” in them and “doing things he asked of me.”
Prosecutors said in court papers that they do not expect the new allegations to slow down court proceedings. Mr. Combs’s trial is scheduled to start in May.
Ben Sisario contributed reporting.
