New ?York
Jury sees more sex videos as prosecutors wind down case against Combs
NEW YORK (AP) — The jury at Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ sex trafficking trial viewed more video recordings on Monday of the sex marathons that have played a prominent role in a prosecution that was likely to rest by Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey sometimes referred to the mostly 1- or 2-minute clips filmed by the music mogul as “explicit” videos, a signal for jurors to put on headsets that enabled them to hear and view the recordings without them being heard or seen by spectators in the Manhattan courtroom.
Prosecutors have cited the drug-fueled multi-day events as evidence of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, saying Combs relied on employees, associates and his business accounts to fly male sex workers to Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, where his staff set up hotel rooms for the encounters and cleaned up afterward.
Last week, prosecutors showed jurors about 2 minutes of the footage from 2012 and 2014 involving Combs’ then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a male sex worker and Combs.
Cassie earlier testified that she participated in hundreds of the “freak-off” events. She and Combs were in a relationship from 2007 until 2018.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of abuse. He settled within hours, and dozens of similar lawsuits followed.
Defense lawyers last week showed the jury about 18 minutes of video clips from the sex performances involving Cassie after a lawyer said in opening statements that the videos prove sexual activity was consensual and not evidence of a crime.
On Monday, prosecutors aired nearly 20 minutes of recordings from 2021 and 2022 of a single mother who was identified only by the pseudonym “Jane,” male sex workers and Combs.
Jane testified for six days earlier in the trial that she was romantically involved with Combs from 2021 until his September arrest at a New York hotel room.
Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Security Investigations agent, testified that dozens of the recordings from late 2021 until last August lasted many hours. Comey finished questioning Cerciello in the early afternoon Monday. After a cross-examination by the defense, the prosecution was expected to rest.
The trial is in its seventh week, with closing arguments tentatively scheduled for Thursday after what was expected to be a brief defense presentation.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty. He’s been active in his defense, writing notes to his attorneys and sometimes influencing when they stop questioning witnesses.
Connecticut
Man whose parents were kidnapped after $245M Bitcoin theft pleads guilty to federal charges
A Connecticut man whose parents were kidnapped after he took part in a $245 million Bitcoin theft has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges and has agreed to testify against his co-defendants, according to court documents that were unsealed this week.
Veer Chetal, 19, from Danbury, Connecticut, was one of three men charged with stealing 4,100 Bitcoins from a victim in Washington, D.C., in an elaborate online scam last August. The trio lived large after the heist, spending millions of dollars on cars, jewelry, rental mansions and nightclub parties, prosecutors say.
A week after the theft, Chetal’s parents were assaulted and kidnapped briefly in Danbury in a failed ransom plot aimed at Chetal, who the attackers believed had a large amount of cryptocurrency, authorities said.
Chetal’s criminal case was unsealed on Monday in federal court in Washington, revealing his guilty pleas in November and his agreement to cooperate with federal authorities investigating the Bitcoin theft. It also revealed new allegations that he was involved in about 50 similar thefts that raked in another $3 million between November 2023 and September 2024.
Another man charged in the Bitcoin theft, Malone Lam, was also among 13 people indicted by a federal grand jury in May in an alleged online racketeering conspiracy involving cryptocurrency thefts across the U.S. and overseas that netted more than $260 million, including the $245 million Bitcoin theft.
Chetal is facing 19 to 24 years in prison, a fine between $50,000 and $500,000 and restitution to the victim that has yet to be determined, according federal sentencing guidelines and his plea agreement.
In September, federal agents with a search warrant raided Chetal’s apartment in Brunswick, New Jersey, and his parents’ home in Danbury in connection with the $245 million Bitcoin heist.
Authorities said they found more than $500,000 in cash, expensive jewelry and watches and high-end clothing. Federal agents also said Chetal had $39 million worth of cryptocurrency that he turned over to investigators.
Authorities alleged Chetal, Lam and Jeandiel Serrano were involved in online “social engineering” attacks against cryptocurrency holders. Lam would send victims alerts about unauthorized attempts to access their crypto accounts, while the others would call the victims posing as representatives from well-known companies like Google and Yahoo and gain access to their accounts, authorities said.
A week after the theft, six Florida men were accused of kidnapping Chetal’s parents in broad daylight in Danbury. One of them crashed a car into the parents’ Lamborghini, while others pulled up in a van, police said. The attackers forced the couple out of their vehicle, beat them, put them in the van and tied them up, police said.
The plot was foiled, and the attackers were arrested quickly because there were eyewitnesses who immediately called police, and an off-duty FBI agent happened to be driving by at the time of the kidnapping, authorities said. Federal agents said a seventh man who was later arrested in connection with the kidnapping had previously gotten into a dispute with Chetal that turned physical at a Miami nightclub.
The attack on the couple is part of an increasing trend worldwide in robbers using violence to steal cryptocurrency.
Chetal, who was attending Rutgers University in New Jersey at the time of the $245 million theft and later withdrew, was born in India and came to the U.S. with his family when he was 4 years old in 2010, according to court documents. His father was granted a foreign worker’s visa, and his wife and children obtained related dependent visas.
Federal authorities said Chetal could face deportation as a result of the criminal case.
Authorities say Chetal’s father lost his job at Morgan Stanley because of the kidnapping and his son’s connection to it.
Chetal was initially released from federal custody on his own recognizance. But a judge ordered him detained until trial earlier this year after federal prosecutors said they discovered Chetal was involved in another crypto theft worth $2 million in October that he didn’t tell them about, after he had begun cooperating with federal authorities.
Jury sees more sex videos as prosecutors wind down case against Combs
NEW YORK (AP) — The jury at Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ sex trafficking trial viewed more video recordings on Monday of the sex marathons that have played a prominent role in a prosecution that was likely to rest by Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey sometimes referred to the mostly 1- or 2-minute clips filmed by the music mogul as “explicit” videos, a signal for jurors to put on headsets that enabled them to hear and view the recordings without them being heard or seen by spectators in the Manhattan courtroom.
Prosecutors have cited the drug-fueled multi-day events as evidence of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, saying Combs relied on employees, associates and his business accounts to fly male sex workers to Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, where his staff set up hotel rooms for the encounters and cleaned up afterward.
Last week, prosecutors showed jurors about 2 minutes of the footage from 2012 and 2014 involving Combs’ then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a male sex worker and Combs.
Cassie earlier testified that she participated in hundreds of the “freak-off” events. She and Combs were in a relationship from 2007 until 2018.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of abuse. He settled within hours, and dozens of similar lawsuits followed.
Defense lawyers last week showed the jury about 18 minutes of video clips from the sex performances involving Cassie after a lawyer said in opening statements that the videos prove sexual activity was consensual and not evidence of a crime.
On Monday, prosecutors aired nearly 20 minutes of recordings from 2021 and 2022 of a single mother who was identified only by the pseudonym “Jane,” male sex workers and Combs.
Jane testified for six days earlier in the trial that she was romantically involved with Combs from 2021 until his September arrest at a New York hotel room.
Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Security Investigations agent, testified that dozens of the recordings from late 2021 until last August lasted many hours. Comey finished questioning Cerciello in the early afternoon Monday. After a cross-examination by the defense, the prosecution was expected to rest.
The trial is in its seventh week, with closing arguments tentatively scheduled for Thursday after what was expected to be a brief defense presentation.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty. He’s been active in his defense, writing notes to his attorneys and sometimes influencing when they stop questioning witnesses.
Connecticut
Man whose parents were kidnapped after $245M Bitcoin theft pleads guilty to federal charges
A Connecticut man whose parents were kidnapped after he took part in a $245 million Bitcoin theft has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges and has agreed to testify against his co-defendants, according to court documents that were unsealed this week.
Veer Chetal, 19, from Danbury, Connecticut, was one of three men charged with stealing 4,100 Bitcoins from a victim in Washington, D.C., in an elaborate online scam last August. The trio lived large after the heist, spending millions of dollars on cars, jewelry, rental mansions and nightclub parties, prosecutors say.
A week after the theft, Chetal’s parents were assaulted and kidnapped briefly in Danbury in a failed ransom plot aimed at Chetal, who the attackers believed had a large amount of cryptocurrency, authorities said.
Chetal’s criminal case was unsealed on Monday in federal court in Washington, revealing his guilty pleas in November and his agreement to cooperate with federal authorities investigating the Bitcoin theft. It also revealed new allegations that he was involved in about 50 similar thefts that raked in another $3 million between November 2023 and September 2024.
Another man charged in the Bitcoin theft, Malone Lam, was also among 13 people indicted by a federal grand jury in May in an alleged online racketeering conspiracy involving cryptocurrency thefts across the U.S. and overseas that netted more than $260 million, including the $245 million Bitcoin theft.
Chetal is facing 19 to 24 years in prison, a fine between $50,000 and $500,000 and restitution to the victim that has yet to be determined, according federal sentencing guidelines and his plea agreement.
In September, federal agents with a search warrant raided Chetal’s apartment in Brunswick, New Jersey, and his parents’ home in Danbury in connection with the $245 million Bitcoin heist.
Authorities said they found more than $500,000 in cash, expensive jewelry and watches and high-end clothing. Federal agents also said Chetal had $39 million worth of cryptocurrency that he turned over to investigators.
Authorities alleged Chetal, Lam and Jeandiel Serrano were involved in online “social engineering” attacks against cryptocurrency holders. Lam would send victims alerts about unauthorized attempts to access their crypto accounts, while the others would call the victims posing as representatives from well-known companies like Google and Yahoo and gain access to their accounts, authorities said.
A week after the theft, six Florida men were accused of kidnapping Chetal’s parents in broad daylight in Danbury. One of them crashed a car into the parents’ Lamborghini, while others pulled up in a van, police said. The attackers forced the couple out of their vehicle, beat them, put them in the van and tied them up, police said.
The plot was foiled, and the attackers were arrested quickly because there were eyewitnesses who immediately called police, and an off-duty FBI agent happened to be driving by at the time of the kidnapping, authorities said. Federal agents said a seventh man who was later arrested in connection with the kidnapping had previously gotten into a dispute with Chetal that turned physical at a Miami nightclub.
The attack on the couple is part of an increasing trend worldwide in robbers using violence to steal cryptocurrency.
Chetal, who was attending Rutgers University in New Jersey at the time of the $245 million theft and later withdrew, was born in India and came to the U.S. with his family when he was 4 years old in 2010, according to court documents. His father was granted a foreign worker’s visa, and his wife and children obtained related dependent visas.
Federal authorities said Chetal could face deportation as a result of the criminal case.
Authorities say Chetal’s father lost his job at Morgan Stanley because of the kidnapping and his son’s connection to it.
Chetal was initially released from federal custody on his own recognizance. But a judge ordered him detained until trial earlier this year after federal prosecutors said they discovered Chetal was involved in another crypto theft worth $2 million in October that he didn’t tell them about, after he had begun cooperating with federal authorities.
