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(The Hill) — Eighteen companies shared that they have cut ties with a business venture created by Hip Hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs amid the slew of sexual assault allegations against the music legend.
The companies confirmed with Rolling Stone Magazine on Sunday that they severed business relationships with Combs’ recently launched platform Empower Global.
Empower Global, founded by Combs in 2021, is an immersive e-commerce, digital marketplace offering products from Black-owned businesses around the world. The platform is said to “elevate the Black economy by creating opportunities for Black entrepreneurs to build and scale successful businesses” for consumers.
Luxury bag, eyewear, and apparel company House of Takura founder Annette Njau told the magazine that she cut ties with Empower Global after learning of Casandra Ventura’s – better known as R&B singer Cassie – lawsuit against Combs.
“We take the allegations against Mr. Combs very seriously and find such behavior abhorrent and intolerable,” Njau told the magazine. “We believe in victims’ rights, and support victims in speaking their truth, even against the most powerful of people.”
“Fulaba is all about empowering women and girls,” Fulaba founder Haby Barry said in a statement on its departure from Empower Global, according to Rolling Stone. “We will not associate with anything or anyone that is counter to our values.”
In contrast, one company founder who asked Rolling Stone to remain anonymous said its business is sticking with the Combs-created e-commerce marketplace, noting that many brands had invested “considerable time and capital” into the platform and many believed in the vision of former Empower Global CEO Khadijah Robinson (who left in February). Other businesses cited the allegations against Combs and lackluster performance as a reason for their departure, Rolling Stone reported.
The news comes nearly a week after a fourth lawsuit was filed against the music mogul in the past few weeks.
In a compliant filed in a Manhattan federal court, an unnamed plaintiff alleged that Combs, a former Bad Boy executive, and a third unidentified man allegedly trafficked and “gang raped” her inside the music mogul’s recording studio in Manhattan in 2003, also alleging she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol,” and that the three men began to hit on her at Combs’s studio.
The plaintiff says she was 17 years old at the time of the encounter.
Last month, Ventura filed a federal lawsuit against Combs, her former boss and romantic partner, alleging that he raped her, physically abused her, and forced her to engage in sex acts with other men — allegations he denies. Ventura and Combs reached a settlement a day after Ventura’s lawsuit against Combs was first reported.
Combs has also been hit with two other lawsuits, including one filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, in which plaintiff Joi Dickerson-Neal alleges that Combs drugged, sexually assaulted and abused her, as well as distributed revenge porn.
Another lawsuit filed by a Jane Doe alleged Combs and a well-known R&B singer took turns raping her and her friend at the singer’s apartment in the early 1990s.
Combs, credited for his influence and pivotal role in shaping the hip-hop scene through his record label, Bad Boy Records, issued a statement Wednesday in which he vehemently denied the allegations against him.
Combs, 54, recently stepped down from his position as the CEO of Revolt — a multimedia venture he cofounded.
“Enough is enough,” Combs said in his statement. “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.”
“Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
The Hill has reached out to Combs Global for comment and more information.
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