In a new wave of lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs this week, Macy’s has been accused of covering up one of the music mogul’s alleged sexual assaults in order to protect a major deal with his clothing brand.
The lawsuit filed by “John Doe” in Ohio has claimed that in 2008, Combs orally raped a man while he was working in the stockroom at Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, in Manhattan, New York, according to Business Insider.
The plaintiff, who said he worked as an advisor for Combs’s rival clothing company, Ecko Unltd at the time, claimed in the lawsuit that he was violently attacked by Combs’s bodyguards, who threatened to kill him. Combs allegedly then forced the plaintiff to perform oral sex on him while he called him “Ecko.”
When the plaintiff reported the alleged assault to Macy’s security, he allegedly received no follow-up and was later barred from the store.
Meanwhile, Combs “began passing out merchandise to an adoring crowd, as if nothing had happened,” the lawsuit claims.
“Approximately three weeks later, Terry Lundgren, CEO of Macy’s, pressured Ecko Unltd. executives to fire plaintiff because Macy’s had just signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Sean John Clothing,” according to the lawsuit via Business Insider.
The plaintiff said he was then fired and lost his apartment that was paid for by the company.
He claims in the lawsuit that he “believes that the report of the assault was destroyed or otherwise purged from Macy’s records, and no action was ever taken as a result of the report.”
“The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity,” Combs’ attorneys said in an emailed statement to The Independent. “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”
The Independent has reached out to Macy’s for comment.
The disturbing allegations are the latest against Combs, who was arrested in September after a grand jury indicted him on federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
At least six lawsuits that were filed against the hip-hop mogul in federal court in Manhattan were filed anonymously, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does. The allegations, which included molesting a 16-year-old boy, supposedly took place from 1995 through 2021.
One of the John Does alleged that Combs fondled his genitals when he was 16 at one of the rapper’s “white parties” in Long Island’s Hamptons in 1998.
The accusers are part of what their lawyers say is a group of more than 100 alleged victims who are in the process of taking legal action against Combs in the wake of his sex trafficking arrest last month.
Until Monday’s lawsuit, Combs had only been accused in civil cases and his criminal indictment of sexual activity with adults.
Combs’s lawyers and other representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
When the planned lawsuits were announced October 1, a lawyer said Combs “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus.”
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges alleging he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Combs’s lawyers have been trying unsuccessfully to get him freed on bail. He has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest.
