Some of America’s biggest music executives are said to be panicking as a top attorney has warned that high-profile accomplices of Sean “Diddy” Combs will be named in a new wave of accuser suits — and “the names will shock you.”
“Many people at the highest level, including artists, executives, managers and others are not sleeping well right now,” Bryan Freedman told Page Six.
“Those who have knowingly allowed and/or encouraged the behavior while remaining silent should be concerned.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest has some of the music industry’s biggest figures losing sleep, according to a top attorney.FilmMagic
Combs, seen here onstage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, is on remand at the Special Housing Unit at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.Variety via Getty Images
Combs was seen hanging out in Central Park in NYC just hours before his arrest last month./ SWNS
“I represent a number of people who have been concerned about being wrongfully mentioned or rumored to be a part of this just by an association unrelated to any wrongdoing … they don’t want to part of some rumor mill because they have some tangential connection to Combs.”
The music industry’s most famous CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge, and his company, Universal Music Group (UMG), have already defeated “offensively false” claims that they “aided and abetted” Combs that were made in a lawsuit back in May.
“People who worked with Diddy very closely, I’m sure they’re terrified and God knows what they were around,” a music industry insider told us.
The music boss threw annual White Parties with the great, the good and the powerful in the Hamptons. He’s seen In September 2002 with (from left) Donna Karan, Tommy Lee, Mariah Carey, Star Jones and Reverend Run.Bryan Bedder/CP/Getty Images
Oscar winner Leonard DiCaprio (center) attended Combs’ White Party in 1998.ZUMAPRESS.com
Last month, former record exec and convicted felon Suge Knight — Diddy’s longtime rival, now in prison for voluntary manslaughter — claimed to NewsNation that Diddy’s former staffer, veteran A&R man “Tubby” Holiday, procured young and underage girls for Diddy to sex-traffic.
“This guy’s job was to bring underage girls and girls who’d have sex. For employees and other artists,” Knight claimed.
Holiday is now the president of Giant Records and co-founder of Black Music Action Coalition. We were unable to reach reps for Holiday.
Attorneys for respected music boss Sir Lucian Grainge and Universal Music Group defeated “offensively false” claims they “aided and abetted” Combs that were made in a lawsuit back in May.FilmMagic
“Everyone knows someone who was at a party with Diddy. There must be 5,000 people who could have seen anything remotely bad that they worry they should have reported,” one Hollywood legal source added.
Rather than losing sleep worrying about their name being mentioned in the case, Freedman is encouraging anyone falsely rumored to be involved with Combs or his parties to seek legal representation.
Attorneys for Grainge (whose son Elliot is married to Sofia Richie) and UMG went straight for the jugular and argued that the accusations — made in a lawsuit filed by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones’ legal team — were so “offensively false” that they planned to take the unusual step of seeking legal penalties from Jones’ lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, for naming them.
Combs pours champagne over two naked women at his Labor Day party in East Hampton in August 1998.Globe Photos via ZUMA Wire
Knight made accusations about Combs’ former A&R man “Tubby” Holiday on NewsNation last month.News Nation
The case alleged that Grainge and UMG execs had operated a sweeping conspiracy that violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — the federal RICO statute that’s more often used in criminal cases against mobsters and drug cartels. It also accused the various defendants of violating federal sex-trafficking laws.
In a scathing response to those allegations in March, attorneys for UMG and Grainge said that those claims were “entirely invented by Mr. Blackburn.”
In a sworn declaration filed in court, Blackburn said that, after reading UMG’s objections, he had “concluded that there is no legal basis for the claims and allegations that were made against the UMG defendants.” He asked that they be dismissed immediately and “with prejudice” — meaning they cannot be refiled.
Rapper Jay-Z (left) convened with Combs at his 2003 White Party.Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.co
UMG’s lead attorney, Donald Zakarin, will be back in court Oct. 16 on a sanctions motion, Page Six is told.
Another legal expert also told Page Six there are people in the music industry who could still be dragged into the Combs case.
“He had a very significant and successful career and had a number of top artists at his company,” the legal expert said. “He worked with MTV and a number of different labels, he had distribution deals with Universal, with Sony and he would show up at industry events, whether it was the Grammys or a charitable function.
Grammy winner Combs has had ties to several major record labels.FilmMagic
“Do I believe there is even a remote possibility that any label exec ever was at his home when any of these or hotels alleged activities? Maybe, but I’ve not seen evidence to support it … I’m sure there were people aware of what was going on, but Combs will have limited it to a relatively close circle that he trusted and with whom he was close.”
The music insider added, “The government seems to be focused on getting to people who will turn over on Diddy, making sure they can make their case.”
