Latest news with #TaneaWallace
Washington Post
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Diddy trial live updates: Special agent continues testimony in Sean Combs's case
In late 2022, well before Sean 'Diddy' Combs got into real trouble, a man in Los Angeles approached Tanea Wallace with an offer. The man was a scout for Soft White Underbelly, photographer Mark Laita's YouTube channel about people struggling with issues such as abuse or addiction. Wallace, an aspiring singer who sometimes made money doing sex work, took Laita up on it, for $300, sitting for his camera and talking about her life.
Toronto Sun
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
The Diddy allegations are shocking. Were they also business as usual?
Published May 01, 2025 • 15 minute read Tanea Wallace, seen in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, says she was disturbed by a sex party she attended at Diddy's Miami Beach home in 2018. Photo by Maya Iman / for The Washington Post Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. In late 2022, well before Sean 'Diddy' Combs got into real trouble, a man in Los Angeles approached Tanea Wallace with an offer. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The man was a scout for Soft White Underbelly, photographer Mark Laita's YouTube channel about people struggling with issues such as abuse or addiction. Wallace, an aspiring singer who sometimes made money doing sex work, took Laita up on it, for $300, sitting for his camera and talking about her life. In the interview, she recounted an alleged incident from 2018 – a crown prince of Brunei flew her from Los Angeles to Miami with a promise to help her singing career. Once there, he took her to a party on Star Island, an uber-exclusive, man-made enclave home to celebrities such as rapper Rick Ross, retired basketball star Shaquille O'Neal and Combs. The music mogul was throwing the party. Security guards took her phone before she could wander through the property. Wallace entered quite a scene, as she recently described in a Washington Post interview. Topless waitresses served drinks by the pool, she said. Inside, woozy partygoers were having sex as if nobody was watching. Wallace eventually encountered Combs outside on a patio couch. At some point, she says, he started masturbating. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But she says she'd had enough when Combs and their mutual acquaintance, Prince Abdul Azim of Brunei, who died in 2020 at age 38, asked her whether she would fly with them out of the country to Cuba the next day. 'I was freaked,' Wallace says, adding that she not only left the party but also headed back home to Los Angeles after the incident. 'I was happy to just … be able to get away from it and get out of it and not really become a victim, but I kind of still felt like a victim, because I didn't want to do music anymore.' (Representatives for Combs declined to comment, but after Wallace appeared in a TMZ documentary about Combs's parties, his attorneys told the outlet that her account was 'completely and categorically false.') When her Soft White Underbelly interview posted on Dec. 31, 2022, more than 75,000 people viewed it the first day. Yet Wallace's story was just one more passing glimpse into the almost banal acceptance of Combs's world, barely registering to the many who work in his industry. After all, Combs's bacchanalia had been a late-night punch line. In 2002, he joked on 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien' about locking women in at his parties: 'Got to keep them there,' he said. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In this world, the rules have always been different. Here, against a backdrop of fame and exclusivity, overlooked behaviour and permissiveness are part of the brand. A moneymaking star might attract sex workers, hangers-on and ambitious young people looking for their big break. There, always in the background, these strivers form a shadow world and can be vulnerable to abuse. If they do speak out, the industry's penchant for contracts and confidentiality clauses can be a particularly useful method for guaranteeing silence. For Combs, it has all come under intense scrutiny after former girlfriend Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura's accusations led to an onslaught of lawsuits from others, a sensational arrest and a federal investigation accusing the mogul of abusing women as part of a sex trafficking ring. Combs, who is now in jail awaiting trial, is alleged to have threatened and coerced women to take part in drug-fueled 'freak offs,' described by federal prosecutors as multiday group sex parties that he would film for his own entertainment – and use to threaten participants afterward. If convicted, Combs could face life in prison. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, and his trial is set to begin in May. It could take years to sort out the more than 70 other sexual assault lawsuits that have been filed by alleged victims, both men and women, including sex workers and those struggling to break into the music and fashion businesses. According to The Post's analysis of the filings, at least four people have accused Combs of using hush money or nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). At least 16 people claim they were threatened to stay silent. In his February lawsuit against Combs, Bad Boy co-founder Kirk Burrowes alleges that Combs engaged in a 'deeply disturbing pattern of sexual abuse, coercion, violence, and intimidation.' Combs has denied the allegations. 'It is unfortunate that anyone can file a complaint even without any proof. No matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won't change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex-trafficked anyone – man or woman, adult or minor,' Combs's attorneys told The Post in a statement. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Still, much of Combs's behaviour was in plain view. He fired a gun into the air at a crowded nightclub in 1999 (he was acquitted after arguing that it was self-defence), was charged with assault and criminal mischief in the beating of record executive Steve Stoute (who agreed to a settlement) that same year, and screamed at his girlfriend-slash-protégée, Ventura, in full view of her friends. That last incident took place at Ventura's 29th birthday in 2015. Her friend, songwriter Tiffany Red, recalls Ventura not wanting to go anywhere with Combs, only to be whisked away by him and his security men. 'For 30 years, Puff has been violent in front of people,' Red says. 'People might not have known he was [allegedly] sex trafficking – that includes me – but we all knew he was violent.' Then there were the White Parties, described in society pages as see-and-be-seen events, where topless women embraced as Combs poured champagne over them for the cameras while an assortment of bold-faced names – Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay-Z, Salman Rushdie – mingled in the Hamptons. At least eight people have come forward to allege that they were sexually abused at Combs's celebrity-packed events. (The mogul has denied allegations of sexual misconduct at the parties. 'It's disappointing to see the media and social commentators twist these cultural moments into something they were not,' a spokesperson for Combs told The Post last year.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In the months after Wallace's Soft White Underbelly video was posted, Combs remained untouchable. He released a new album, received MTV's Global Icon Award and was given a key to the city by New York Mayor Eric Adams. Only in May 2024 did public perception of Combs begin to shift. He had been sued months earlier by Ventura, after attempting to use familiar tools for accused celebrities: a payout and nondisclosure agreement. 'Mr. Combs offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit,' Ventura's lawyer Douglas Wigdor said in a statement at the time. The pair reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount the following day. But then footage leaked of Combs beating Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016, a clip not even his former collaborators in the music industry could stomach. Combs posted a since-deleted video apology on Instagram, though it seemed to have little impact. (In March, Combs's defence team alleged that the video aired by CNN was 'substantially altered' – claims the news outlet has denied.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It was shocking and painful to see that video,' says Ty Stiklorius, the longtime manager of John Legend and an advocate for greater protections for women in music. 'And none of it surprised me.' A Post analysis of the filings, interviews with music world figures and sex workers, and documents from other cases reveal that Combs's behaviour may be, in part, rooted in the long-standing practice of using nondisclosure agreements in the industry, which allowed talent to act with impunity. 'This is not a Diddy story,' says songwriter Red. 'This is an abuse in music story. The only reason he's the main character is because he's famous and Cassie is famous. But what happened with Diddy is business as usual.' Business as usual, perhaps – but the allegations against Combs are on a scale rarely seen. Contracts and confidentiality clauses Combs used NDAs in other instances. In 2023, he made headlines by offering to return publishing rights to artists who recorded on his Bad Boy label. But former Danity Kane singer Aubrey O'Day, in refusing to accept his offer, noted that it came with a caveat. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I have to release him for any claims or wrongdoings or actions prior to the date of the release,' O'Day said on the 'Only Stans' podcast. 'I have to sign an NDA that I will never disparage Puff, Bad Boy, Janice Combs, or Justin Combs Music, or EMI, or Sony ever in public.' (A representative for Combs declined to comment on O'Day's allegations.) The lawsuits against Combs also list NDAs as the mogul's main instrument in keeping questions at bay. NDAs are effectively a legal contract between parties to not discuss anything, good or bad. (A non-disparagement clause in a contract restricts employees from making negative comments.) In exchange, the second party receives compensation. If they violate the NDA, the penalty can be harsh, including a fine or a lawsuit, according to Anne Andrews, an attorney representing former Atlantic Records executive Dorothy Carvello in a case against the label and former label executives. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Post's examination shows that NDAs and the corresponding payments are nothing new. They are a tool dating back to the days of the late mogul Ahmet Ertegun, who died in 2006 and is known for signing Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Ray Charles. They became a key weapon for convicted sex trafficker R. Kelly as he paid millions to young women and teenage girls to remain silent even as he continued to abuse others. For more than two decades, 'I Believe I Can Fly' singer Kelly recruited underage girls and sexually assaulted them, often on camera, and silenced them with payoffs and nondisclosure agreements that his label was aware of and indirectly funded through his record deal. (In 2022, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison for crimes including the sexual exploitation of children; the following year, he was handed another 20-year sentence for similar crimes, to be served mostly concurrently.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The idea is to silence women,' says Carvello, an artists and repertoire executive at Atlantic Records in the late 1980s who has filed a lawsuit alleging abuse by top executives, including Ertegun. 'And if you continue NDA'ing women, the behaviour never stops.' According to Carvello's lawsuit, the Atlantic offices were freewheeling men's clubs where sex toys, pornographic magazines and propositions were as standard as record-release parties. Another former Atlantic staffer, Jan Roeg, has also filed a lawsuit against the Ertegun estate, accusing him of sexually assaulting her and decades of harassment during her years at the label. Roeg, through her attorney, declined to speak with The Post . In both lawsuits, Carvello and Roeg allege that Atlantic regularly used company money to pay off women threatening to go public with their stories about Ertegun. An Atlantic spokesman declined to comment on this and the Carvello and Roeg cases. (An attorney representing Ertegun's estate, which filed motions to dismiss both lawsuits, told The Post that they were 'meritless.') This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Those kinds of alleged hush payouts are noted in a lawsuit filed by Liza Gardner, a North Carolina woman, against Combs. Gardner was 16 in 1990 when she alleges that she was raped by Combs and singer Aaron Hall. (Combs has denied Gardner's claims and has filed a motion to dismiss her suit; court filings show that co-defendant Hall has not been served as lawyers attempt to locate his whereabouts. Hall could not be reached by phone and did not respond to The Post's emails requesting comment.) Gardner's attorneys accuse Universal Music Group, which had a distribution deal with Combs's Bad Boy Records, and its subsidiaries of 'covering up the sexual assaults … by paying off the victims through unmarked international wire transfers.' The complaint then lists demands for further information from Universal, suggesting that the corporation made several six-figure payments to victims between 2015 to 2023. (A Universal spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I think the point is how rampant it is,' says Andrews, the attorney for Carvello. 'You're just trying to meet people who say they're going to produce your record, and then you're drugged and sexually assaulted or criminal behaviour ensues, and then you're essentially told that you have to sign a document. And women did this freely because they wanted to. They wanted jobs. They wanted to be employed. They didn't have the power.' Sex as currency Even when NDAs are not employed, it can take years for music industry leaders to notice bad behaviour. Jamal Rashid, a producer convicted of running a prostitution ring over a 12-year period, established a career working with Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber and others even as he was being investigated. Rashid, who uses the stage name Mally Mall, is now trying to relaunch his music career after his release from prison last year. He declined to speak with The Post through his attorney, David Bigney. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Post found that, during his sentencing in 2021, Rashid submitted testimonials and letters of support from prominent music world figures (including former Columbia and Sony/ATV Music Publishing executive Shawn 'Tubby' Holiday, Jay-Z's Roc Nation and Bieber collaborator Jason 'Poo Bear' Boyd) and entered them into the court record. Both Holiday and Boyd lived with Rashid during the same time period that he pleaded guilty to running the prostitution ring. All three parties told The Post that they did not write the letters. 'I didn't know there was a letter,' Boyd says. 'That's not even my signature,' Holiday says. Holiday is no small player in the music world, having collaborated with big names such as Quincy Jones and Solange. He has worked at Combs's Bad Boy Records, Interscope, and Sony/ATV and is now an executive at Giant Records and Publishing. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Holiday said he knew Combs professionally but never saw any of the 'freak off' parties he has read about. He said that he never knew of Rashid's prostitution ring but confirmed that he did live with Rashid for a time in Los Angeles, an arrangement he described as one of convenience. Holiday said that his relationship with Rashid was based on music. Rashid, who earned millions through his prostitution businesses, eventually built a recording studio in Las Vegas. Holiday, already established in the music business, helped him branch out, co-producing a song on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's 2007 Top 10 album, 'Strength & Loyalty.' 'You've got to remember, I didn't know anything about his court case until I heard he was arrested,' Holiday says. 'Or going to jail. People hide what they want to hide from you.' Holiday wasn't the only significant music figure to share an address with Rashid. Boyd also lived in one of Rashid's homes, this one in Las Vegas. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Boyd, reached by The Post , also denied that he knew about Rashid's prostitution business while living with him. He said his relationship with Rashid began because of his own misfortune. He was struggling financially and was homeless at the time they met. (The IRS filed a lien against Boyd while he was at the Las Vegas address.) In 2013, Boyd's fortunes would turn. That's when the rapper Lil Twist introduced him to Bieber. Over the next decade, Boyd would write four No. 1 singles with Bieber, including 'Despacito (Remix)' and 'I'm the One.' 'When I met [Rashid], he was a good person,' Boyd says. 'And I thought I was a good judge of character. I didn't see him do anything that was bad. He was trying to be in the music business and he had a studio. It was just good energy, you know?' Angela Williams, who worked for Rashid's prostitution business and later served as a government witness against him, is now an advocate for women struggling to get away from prostitution. When she watched Tanea Wallace talk about her experience with Combs, Williams was struck by the similarities to what she and others say they experienced under Rashid. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There's the excitement of being blindsided by the glitter and the glam and the riches and fortunes,' Williams says. 'You go there thinking you're going to get spoiled like 'Pretty Woman,' and you end up having to do the spoiling on your knees.' The cost of speaking out Even now, Samantha Maloney declines to discuss the specifics of her case. That's because her settlement requires that she pay $60,000 for every public comment she makes about an incident she says occurred at the 2017 Grammys with Warner Music Group chief executive Stephen Cooper. 'This is how the cycle repeats,' Maloney says. 'You have no choice but to take the actual money and then they demand you stay silent.' A former drummer (for Hole and Eagles of Death Metal), Maloney was hired in 2014 as vice president of artists and repertoire by Warner. Three years later, she was at a Grammy party when her boss, Cooper, waved her over, according to email exchanges between attorneys representing WMG and Maloney acquired by The Post . In her account, Maloney says Cooper was with a younger woman – not his then-wife, Nancy – and he asked her whether she would join them for sex in their hotel room. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Maloney turned him down and reported the incident to Warner's human resources department, according to the documents. Within months, Maloney was laid off from Warner for reasons 'unrelated to the incident' and paid $45,000 in severance. When she asked to be hired back and given additional compensation, per the documents, WMG paid her $240,000 and had her sign a settlement agreement that included an NDA. (WMG also denied any wrongdoing in the paperwork.) Today, Cooper denies Maloney's accusation and says she may have misheard him in a room that was very loud. 'The only threesome I've ever referred to in my entire career is with golf,' Cooper told The Post . 'And I have been involved with dozens upon dozens of companies. For decades I have never ever, ever in my career been accused of anything that has to do with harassment, whether it be verbal, psychological, sexual.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Cooper remained at Warner until 2023, when he retired at age 75. At the time of his retirement, his compensation was $17 million, according to Billboard magazine. Maloney, meanwhile, is no longer working in the industry. She said she has applied for jobs and believes her case has kept her from being hired. 'There's no good explanation why somebody of her caliber, aside from something punitive, wouldn't be working in the business,' says Michael Howe, a former Warner Music Group A&R vice president who worked alongside Maloney. The hope, for some, is that the Combs case may change that. Even if Ventura has an NDA, it wouldn't prevent her from being subpoenaed. Since the Combs accusations broke, Stiklorius, John Legend's manager, and songwriter Red have grown closer as they advocate for changes in the industry. They want to make recording studios safe, posting rules so everyone is conscious of them. Several Combs allegations are centred on experiences in studios. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'If you go on the Metro in L.A., there are signs that say your body is your body,' Stiklorius says. 'Nobody is to be touched or harmed or harassed in this space. If anybody threatens you or touches you or makes you feel uncomfortable, here is the hotline.' Stiklorius knows this fear firsthand. At a 1997 party hosted by Combs on a yacht in St. Barts, she was looking for the disco room when a man directed her to a bedroom and then locked the door behind them. Luckily, she nervously talked her way out of the situation. Now, she's thinking about not only Combs but also the seemingly endless stream of women she talks to in her work, whether signing artists or hiring for staff jobs. It seems as if they all have a story. It can be big or small. Persevering after dealing with unwanted advances and even sexual assaults. Simply having to remain silent as the boss and his buddy chuckle as they make tasteless comments about women. 'It's devastating every time you hear it,' Stiklorius says, 'but it doesn't surprise me in the least, because we have never had proper truth and reconciliation. And in the music industry, we've never uncovered so many of the things that have happened, the abuses, the exploitation. Hardly anybody is held accountable.' — Alice Crites and Evan Hill contributed to this report.
