UMG, Motown demand sanctions over ‘meritless’ claims against execs by Diddy accuser

MANHATTAN (CN) — Two major record labels, Universal Music Group and Motown Records, asked a federal judge on Wednesday to sanction a New York City attorney and his client over “utterly salacious” claims in a civil lawsuit accusing the companies of funding and facilitating Sean “Diddy” Combs’ drug-fueled, criminal sex trafficking conspiracy.

Former Bad Boy music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones sued Combs in February, accusing the entertainment mogul of sexually assaulting him and forcing him to have sex with prostitutes.

Represented by attorney Tyrone “T.A.” Blackburn, the civil complaint filed in the Southern District of New York with a bold, all-caps “trigger warning” for graphic sexual content includes accusations of repeated and unsolicited groping and sexual touching by Combs.

Jones says he witnessed — and in many cases captured on audio — hundreds of hours of illegal drug and sexual activity by Combs and the people surrounding him, which he claims included distributing and transporting drugs (ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, Percocet, ketamine, synthetic “pink cocaine”, and psychedelic mushrooms), soliciting prostitutes, serving alcohol laced with ecstasy, and the purchase and transport of guns.

Jones also accuses Motown Records, Universal Music Group, and several executives of liability due to direct knowledge and funding of Diddy’s illicit lifestyle.

Blackburn says that Motown’s business partnership with Combs’ Love Records label in 2022 bankrolled the “serious debauchery” that the record companies knew was occurring at the time.

“Willful ignorance should not be excused,” he said in court on Wednesday.

Attorney Donald Zakarin from Pryor Cashman argued in a motion for sanctions that Blackburn and Jones needed to be sanctioned as deterrent against other lawyers bringing such salacious cases arising from baseless claims.

“The facts here compellingly cry out for sanctions,” the labels argued in their motion. “Not only is Blackburn’s conduct part of a consistent pattern of behavior, but he has used the outrageous allegations he pleads to self-promote on social media, even as he purposefully stalled in seeking to serve both the first amended complaint and second amended complaint.”

Zakarin called Jones’ suit “entirely meritless,” and said that Blackburn was litigating the case in bad faith.

He said Blackburn had falsely represented UMG and Motown as a “parent company” of Combs’ Love Records in implicating them in RICO and sex trafficking claims, when there was never any actually partnership or joint venture between Motown and Love Records — only an arm’s length license agreement.

Zakarin said Motown/UMG paid Combs a $1.3 million advance, which the companies did not recoup because they terminated the licensing deal before Diddy’s R&B record, “The Love Album: Off The Grid”, was ultimately released on Love Records.

“I do not see any basis for liability because they paid money,” he said.

Blackburn also said Wednesday he had already met with federal prosecutors nine times in connection with the investigation that resulted the criminal indictment that landed Combs in jail.

He repeatedly mentioned that he is set to meet with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a tenth time, with whom he had already turned over photographs and other evidence from his client.

Blackburn said his client had already sketched out the layout of Combs’ bedroom for investigators, showing them exactly where to go when they searched his multiple mansions.

He also repeatedly mentioned that a superseding indictment is looming in that case, which could potentially name more co-defendants and co-conspirators in connection to Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy case.

“I would be really slow to spike the football,” he warned.

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken did not rule from the bench on the sanctions motion, but he did note in court that an attorney’s recklessness or sloppiness alone would not warrant sanctions.

Combs himself is not a party to the sanctions motion, but his defense team has separately filed a motion to dismiss Jones’ complaint, calling it “an attempt to turn that commercial dispute into a broad criminal conspiracy run by Combs, without providing evidence of any significance.”

Combs’ attorney Erica Wolff, from Sher Tremonte LLP, spoke briefly at the sanctions, concurring with the record labels in accusing Blackburn of “a pattern of frankly unprofessional conduct.”

She accused Blackburn of filing frivolous and unsubstantiated claims, hacking her and colleagues, and “abusing the courts as a springboard to promote himself.”

On Monday, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee filed six civil lawsuits against Combs in the Southern District of New York, each brought under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act during a two-year window that suspends legal deadlines and allows sexual assault victims to sue over abuse that might otherwise be too old to pursue.

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