Did Sean Combs Set Kid Cudi’s Car On Fire? Accusations Allude To Arson

In their efforts to demonstrate that Combs was capable of the kind of violence that helped him control a criminal enterprise, federal prosecutors have pointed to his possession of multiple firearms, a video showing him assaulting his girlfriend and general language in court documents describing multiple acts of intimidation and violence.

But in one of their most detailed charges, prosecutors also described a specific incident in which they say the music mogul, who is now charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, orchestrated the arson of a convertible.

The 14-page indictment does not specify what acts of kidnapping and arson Combs committed, investigators say. But in a letter filed last week with the court, federal prosecutors describe a disturbing sequence of events that took place in late 2011 and early 2012, in which Combs allegedly executed a plan to break into a person’s home and, about two weeks later, set fire to his car.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution.

The government argued that the car-burning incident was evidence of the kind of threats Combs used to operate what prosecutors described as a racketeering enterprise — and to control the associates investigators say he leads.

“The defendant’s violence — whether spontaneous or premeditated — had the effect of exerting continuing control over these individuals,” the letter states.

Neither the letter nor the federal indictment identifies the person the government says was targeted. But the timing and facts of the incident described by the government closely match an accusation made in a complaint filed by Combs’ former girlfriend, singer Cassie, last year.

In the complaint, attorneys for Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, described the car bombing as an example of “what Mr. Combs was both willing and able to do to those he believed had offended him.” In this case, his target was Kid Cudi, a man competing for his girlfriend’s affections, according to the complaint.

Last fall, Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, said in brief remarks to The New York Times that the description of the incident in Ventura’s complaint was accurate.

Combs’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But at a bail hearing last week, one of his attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, quickly referred to the incident as described in the government’s filing and said, “Let’s just say there’s another side to this story, and someday that other side could come out.”

Although the government has so far been fairly general in its descriptions of the abuse it accuses Combs of committing, Combs has been named in recent lawsuits for specific acts of sexual violence. On Tuesday, for example, Combs was sued by a woman who accused him of drugging and raping her.

Combs’ attorneys have fought the lawsuits in court and described the plaintiffs as jumping on a “bandwagon,” constructing false claims as a way to extract settlements from Combs.

According to Ventura’s complaint, Combs and Ventura, a singer on Combs’ label, had hit a rough patch in their relationship in 2011. Combs, the complaint says, had a history of abusing Ventura and she had begun a brief relationship with Kid Cudi, another famous, genre-defying, Grammy-winning artist.

When Combs later discovered emails between Ventura and Kid Cudi on Ventura’s phone, he “became enraged,” according to court documents in his case, and then punished Ventura by repeatedly punching and kicking her, the lawsuit says.

Combs also sought to send a message to Kid Cudi.

“Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car and that he wanted to make sure Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened,” her complaint states.

Within weeks, Kid Cudi’s car, parked in the rapper’s driveway, caught fire, according to court documents.

Federal prosecutors described a strikingly similar situation in their detention letter.

On December 22, 2011, in the early morning hours of December 22, 2011, Combs and an associate “kidnapped an individual at gunpoint to facilitate the break-in and entry into the residence” of a person they refer to in the letter as “Individual-1.” According to the letter, individuals working for Combs then set fire to Individual-1’s car approximately two weeks later, “by opening the convertible top of the car and throwing a Molotov cocktail inside.”

Several witnesses testified about the events surrounding the kidnapping and break-in, according to the letter. Prosecutors also said that incident reports from the police and fire departments corroborate the break-in and extensively document the arson. The city of Los Angeles has denied The Times’ requests for those incident reports on the grounds that investigative records are exempt from disclosure under California law.

A spokesperson for Kid Cudi did not respond to requests for comment this week.

In his complaint, Ventura said the car exploded in February 2012, slightly later than federal prosecutors suggested in their detention letter.

Combs and Ventura reached an out-of-court settlement the day after the lawsuit was filed, but many of the allegations in the court documents were repeated in the indictment filed by federal prosecutors. She accused Combs of what she called years of beatings, controlling behavior and various forms of sexual abuse, including rape. He denied her accusations before reaching an out-of-court settlement.

Federal prosecutors have focused particularly on events that Ventura’s complaint describes as “freak-offs,” in which she says she was coerced into having sex with male prostitutes for Combs’ gratification.

It was during one of those “tantrums,” according to Ventura’s complaint, that Combs found her phone — and the emails between her and Kid Cudi, which the complaint says triggered Combs’ violent reaction.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.