Cassie Ventura Lawsuit Document: Settlement, Hotel Video, and Verdict

The Cassie Ventura lawsuit was a federal civil complaint filed on November 16, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of more than a decade of physical abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. It settled for $20 million one day after filing. The allegations it laid out then drove a federal criminal investigation that ended with Combs’s arrest, a split trial verdict, and a 50-month prison sentence.¹²

What the Complaint Alleged

The suit, docketed as Ventura v. Combs (Case No. 1:23-cv-10098), described abuse spanning roughly 2005 to 2019. Ventura signed with Bad Boy Records at around 19, reportedly on a 10-album contract, and began dating Combs in 2007. According to the complaint, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse began that same year.¹³

Coerced Sexual Encounters

At the center of the document were events Combs called “Freak Offs”: forced sexual encounters with male sex workers that Ventura said she was compelled to arrange and take part in. The complaint said the sessions took place in luxury hotel suites, sometimes lasted for days, and involved large quantities of drugs including ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, and ketamine. It alleged Combs directed the encounters, watched and masturbated during them, and recorded them on phones, laptops, and tablets, telling Ventura he kept the footage as leverage.¹

Physical Violence

The complaint detailed specific beatings:

2009: Combs allegedly beat and kicked Ventura in the face inside a vehicle and again at his home, then confined her to a hotel room to recover.
2015: Combs allegedly beat and kicked her while she was curled under a toilet in a Las Vegas hotel.
2016: Combs allegedly punched her and threw glass vases at her in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.¹

The complaint also alleged Combs raped Ventura at her home after she tried to leave the relationship in 2018.¹

Threats, Control, and Corporate Reach

Beyond direct violence, the complaint described intimidation and professional leverage. It alleged Combs blew up the car of rapper Kid Cudi (Scott Mescudi), who had been romantically involved with Ventura, and regularly required Ventura to carry his firearm. When she tried to leave, the document said, Combs used employees, managers, and attorneys to track her down and tied her music career to her continued relationship with him. In one alleged 2016 incident, a Sony Music employee told Ventura the release of her record depended on her answering Combs’s phone calls.¹

The suit named corporate defendants alongside Combs: Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records, Epic Records (a Sony Music subsidiary), and Combs Enterprises. It framed those companies as more than passive bystanders, alleging their networks were used to locate Ventura when she fled and to pressure her to return, and that employees witnessed beatings but “no one dared to speak up against their frightening and ferocious boss.” It also alleged Combs paid $50,000 to the InterContinental Hotel to obtain security footage of the 2016 assault.¹

The Legal Basis and Filing Window

At the federal level, the complaint asserted a sex trafficking claim under 18 U.S.C. § 1591. Under New York law, it invoked the State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and New York City’s Gender Motivated Violence Act. It also cited California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act and California’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act.¹

The timing was deliberate. Ventura filed roughly a week before the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a 2022 law that opened a one-year window for otherwise time-barred civil claims of sexual violence. Ventura told the New York Times that “with the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced.”⁴ She was represented by Douglas Wigdor of Wigdor LLP.⁵

Denial and a 24-Hour Settlement

Combs’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, responded the same day the suit was filed, saying Combs “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.” Brafman called the complaint “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies” and said Ventura had previously demanded $30 million under threat of publishing a damaging book, which he called “blatant blackmail.” Wigdor countered that Combs had offered Ventura an “eight-figure” sum to remain silent before she filed.⁶⁷

Despite that denial, the case ended in 24 hours. On November 17, 2023, the parties reached a settlement. Ventura filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on November 20, and Judge Denise L. Cote dismissed the case with prejudice on November 21, terminating all defendants. Ventura said she had resolved the matter “on terms that I have some level of control.” Brafman said the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”⁸⁷

The amount stayed private for months. It was disclosed publicly in May 2025, when Ventura testified at the criminal trial and confirmed she received $20 million from Combs and his companies.⁹

The 2016 Hotel Video

Six months after the settlement, in May 2024, CNN obtained and published surveillance footage from the InterContinental Hotel dated March 5, 2016. It showed Combs running after Ventura, grabbing her by the back of the neck, throwing her to the floor, kicking her twice while she was down, and dragging her by her sweatshirt. When she reached for a hallway phone, he shoved her and threw an object at her. The footage matched the assault described in the complaint.¹⁰

Two days later, Combs posted an apology on Instagram, reversing his earlier denials: “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”¹¹ The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the 2016 incident fell outside the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of assault.¹⁰

How the Suit Triggered a Federal Prosecution

Federal investigators began looking at Combs in the months after the civil filing.¹² On March 25, 2024, Homeland Security Investigations agents raided his Los Angeles and Miami properties on warrants out of a Manhattan federal court, as part of an inquiry into alleged sex trafficking, sexual assault, and narcotics distribution.¹³

Combs was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on September 16, 2024. The next day, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York returned a three-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and transportation for purposes of prostitution. Prosecutors alleged he had led a criminal enterprise since at least 2008 that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. A superseding indictment brought the total to five counts at trial. Combs pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.¹⁴¹⁵ Federal prosecutors cited the 2016 hotel video as evidence and accused Combs of trying to bribe a hotel security worker to suppress it.¹²

Ventura at Trial

Ventura was the prosecution’s star witness. She testified over four days, concluding on May 16, 2025, covering the same ground as her complaint with added detail. She described the “freak off” sessions as “humiliating,” said they caused physical injuries and stifled her music career, and told the jury the abuse left her feeling “worthless, just like dirt.” She testified the sessions happened “hundreds of times over the years.”¹⁶³

When the defense suggested her suit had been financially motivated, Ventura confirmed the $20 million settlement and told jurors she would return every dollar “if I never had to do freak offs. I would have agency and autonomy.” She also disclosed that she expected roughly $10 million from a separate settlement with the InterContinental Hotels group tied to the 2016 assault.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹²⁰

Verdict, Sentence, and Ventura’s Statement

On July 2, 2025, after a trial of nearly seven weeks, the jury returned a split verdict. Combs was found not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and not guilty on both sex trafficking counts. He was convicted on the two remaining counts of transportation to engage in prostitution: one involving Ventura and male sex workers, and one involving a separate victim identified only as “Jane.” Each count carried a maximum of 10 years. Judge Arun Subramanian denied bail after the verdict.²¹²²

On October 3, 2025, Judge Subramanian sentenced Combs to 50 months in federal prison. The probation department had recommended a maximum of seven-and-a-quarter years; the defense had argued for no more than 14 months, citing the more than a year Combs had already spent in a Brooklyn jail.²²³

In a three-page victim impact statement submitted before sentencing, Ventura rejected the defense’s framing of the relationship as a “love story,” calling it a “horrific decade of my life stained by abuse, violence, forced sex, and degradation.” She wrote that she still has nightmares and flashbacks, requires ongoing psychological care, and lives in fear of retribution: “I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial.”²⁴

The Lawsuits That Followed

Ventura’s complaint was the first of many. Two more women filed suits on the final day of the Adult Survivors Act window in November 2023, and dozens more followed over the next year under New York City’s Gender Motivated Violence Protection Law and other statutes. Attorney Tony Buzbee announced plans to file 120 lawsuits on behalf of alleged victims.⁴²⁵

After the verdict, Wigdor said: “This entire criminal process started when our client Cassie Ventura had the courage to file her civil complaint in November 2023.” He added that although the jury did not convict Combs of sex trafficking, Ventura “paved the way for a jury to find him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution.”²⁶

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Vanity Fair. Douglas Wigdor and the Case Against Sean Diddy Combs
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CourtListener. Ventura v. Combs Docket
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Variety. Cassie Diddy Settlement Alleges Rape Trial
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ABC7. Sean Diddy Combs Charges Unsealed
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ABC7. Diddy Trial Live Updates – Freak Off Videos
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PBS NewsHour. Singer Dawn Richard Says Sean Combs Threatened to Make Her Disappear
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Forbes. Diddy Trial Kid Cudi Testifies Sean Combs Broke Into His House
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Al Jazeera. What Is the Partial Verdict in the Sean Diddy Combs Trial
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Vulture. Diddy Lawsuit Allegations Explainer
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Variety. Cassie Lawyer Praises Strength Despite Split Diddy Verdict