P.Diddy with a model at Burning Man

Billionaire Burner Diddy: The New Epstein?

P.Diddy invented the remix. He used to be a billionaire, but he’s off the Forbes Billionaire list for 2024. And now he’s been indicted for kinky sex trafficking.

“Bad Boy thank you for the special delivery”

Diddy was first spotted at Burning Man in 2013 under a pink parasol

Parasols and Celebrities at Cargo Cult
Image Credit: Voodoo Child, 2013

In 2015 he returned with his girlfriend Cassie. TMZ managed to get video of him dancing on the playa.

Cassie riding on her phat bike
P.Diddy’s girlfriend Cassie poses in front of the couple’s Pilatus PC-12, a sweet ride to the Playa

He was snapped there with Cassie again in 2020 at the trash fence.

Image Credit: Essence

By all accounts he was a model burner – getting into the spirit of things and having the time of his life. He posed for selfies with burners, rode on art cars, and danced his ass off.

Diddy riding in Henry Chang’s art car
Diddy inside Robot Heart
photo: Peter Ruprecht

Perhaps inspired by Burning Man, Diddy later went on to win a Grammy for an album he made over Zoom with “Burna Boy”.

Sadly, it seems the owner of Bad Boy Entertainment, famous for their tag line “Bad Boys For Life!” has…well, he’s been a bad boy. And he could be facing life.

“I’m the definition of…half man, half drugs…bad boy, that’s wassup” [Look for the cameo appearance from Ben Stiller at 2:56 with an 8-ball, who makes a funny little reptilian move with his tongue when he says he wants to be invited to one of Diddy’s special house parties.]

How bad are we talking? We’re talking “the Black Epstein” bad. Sean “Puffy” Combs was indicted in Federal Court on charges of decades of sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice, witness tampering…and arson. Multiple counts of arson. That’s one bad burner! Of course, innocent til proven guilty, maybe this rapper has the money and clout and kompromat to beat the rap.

Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy aka P.Diddy aka Diddy aka PD aka Love [that’s what the indictment calls him!] was also charged with multiple offenses of possession with the intent to distribute, or distribution of, narcotics and controlled substances, including:

Sounds like your average everyday Burner fanny pack

Image Credit: okhereisthesituation

The indictment alleges that Diddy would order “Freak Offs”, where he would fly male prostitutes across state lines to hotel rooms that had been prepared by Diddy’s staff with drugs, baby oil, lubricant, extra linens and lighting. They would then have sex with his female victims, who had been lured in by promises of romantic relationships and/or career advancement, in “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often electronically recorded”. Freak Offs occurred regularly, lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers. They used so many controlled substances in the Freak Offs that Diddy and his victims had to be hooked up to an IV afterwards to recover. One Freak Off in a Manhattan hotel penthouse left a damage bill of $46,000. Allegedly. In law enforcement raids in March 2024 they searched Diddy’s homes in Miami and LA looking for evidence of Freak Offs. They found controlled substances and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

If you’ve participated in one of these Freak Offs, please let us know in the comments.

Here’s the full indictment:

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They are going for asset forfeiture, everything he earned from his racketeering enterprise. The number isn’t named in the indictment, but it sounds like there is a number – so maybe there’s a chance for Diddy to pay his way out of this.


This is on the heels of a staggeringly revelatory civil case from Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie, where he was accused of rape, savage assaults “often”, blowing up a man’s car, masturbating while filming sexual encounters of her with other men, and chasing a rival industry executive with a gun.

diddy-cassie

Diddy apologized to Cassie in May 2024 after 2016 CCTV footage from the InterContinental Hotel in Century City was released by CNN, showing Diddy grabbing, shoving, dragging and kicking her then stealing her purse.

Cassie’s civil case was filed on November 16th last year. On November 17th last year the New York Times reported that Diddy had settled his lawsuit with Cassie.

Don’t do it, kids…especially if you’re a billionaire with drivers on your payroll

Diddy was also sued by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr, a music producer. Co-defendants in the civil complaint include Diddy’s son Justin, his Chief of Staff Ghislaine Kristina Khorram, Universal Music CEO Lucian Grange, Motown Records CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam, and their respective companies.

Diddy would take his cellphone and start recording; as a result, Lil Rod was able to “secure hundreds of hours of footage and audio recordings of Diddy, his staff and guests engaging in serious illegal activity”.

diddy-v-jones-sexual-assault-complaint-feb-2024

This complaint adds mushrooms and marijuana to the drug mix, and alleges Jones was sexually assaulted by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Music producer Stevie J and rapper Yung Miami are also mentioned. One party described had at least 5 girls under the age of 16 drinking ecstasy-laced DeLeon, Diddy’s tequila brand. Photos are provided in the complaint supporting these claims. The court document details the shooting of a 30-year old African American male “G” in a rest room, where Diddy and his son Justin were in a heated argument with the man. Diddy instructed Lil Rod to lie to the police that it was a drive-by shooting, but left him to keep his blood-stained clothing and take photos of the aftermath in the bathroom.


Last week another Diddy lawsuit dropped. He is being sued by Dawn Richard, a singer from Danity Kane and Diddy’s band “Dirty Money”.

diddy-v-jones-sexual-assault-complaint-feb-2024

This indictment reveals that he told USA Today in 1998 that his name was “Puff” because he had a “temper” and was known to “huff and puff” when he was angry. It also claims “Mr. Combs hired police officers to attend his parties, sending a clear message to guests that his influence extended to law enforcement officers, and creating a climate of fear and a tacit warning that reporting him to authorities would be both unacceptable and futile“.

I wanna know what happened to Biggie and Pac. Maybe as this thing unfolds we’ll get to find out.


Diddy’s lawyers have been arguing all day in Court that he should be allowed to put up his $50 million Miami mansion as bail. The government claimed that he was a flight risk, having already been caught by Homeland Security trying to flee the country in a private jet. The judge just ruled for the prosecution: Diddy will remain behind bars. For now. I believe that will be the Manhattan Correctional Facility, where Epstein met his untimely self-demise.

As usually, Inner City Press has all the details livexed live-tweeted from the Court Room. They’re a great Follow.


Some in-depth Twitter threads for those who want to go further down this rabbit hole…warning the first one is a serious piece of research but it’s pretty disturbing, avoid it if you might get triggered.

Bonus for those who made it this far.

Burning Man 2018 Financial Analysis

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

2018 Burning Man Project IRS Form 990

The Burning Man juggernaut smashes on. Since they declared the business a “non-profit”, it sure has become profitable.

Commodification Camps are running rampant, and Black Rock City has become one of the world’s most sought-after selfie destinations. BMorg even has its own private airline now to bring in the “high” rollers.

Sales were $46.6 million, up $2.1m from 2017. A cash surplus after expenses of $2.6m was generated.

A record of $2.2m in grants was given out; offset by $1.75m in donations and government grants received. About a third of the grants went outside the United States.

The Org ended the year with net assets of $26.26 million. Cash at bank was $8,981,108 with additional savings and temporary cash investments of $5,468,564 – call it $14.5 million.

It’s not enough, of course: ticket prices must still be increased every year.

We predicted that top-tier tickets would be above $2000 by 2020. We’re pretty close – adding in vehicle pass, handling fees and taxes, VIP tickets that were $390 when we started this blog in 2012 are now going for $1760.86.


Financial Comparison – 2018 to 2014

The organization employed 946 people and approximately 10,000 volunteers.

They have 16 directors; 11 of those are “independent”.

In 2018 Dennis Bartels was appointed Chairman of the Board. He was formerly the director of the SF Exploratorium.

One thing that I was highly skeptical of has now come to pass, and I’m pleased to report that BMorg did the right thing:

Finally, in 2018 we completed the transfer of Burning Man’s trademarks from Decommodification LLC to Burning Man Project. These marks include “the Man” logo and the names “Burning Man” and ‘“Black Rock City,” among others. The LLC was established to temporarily protect these words and symbols of Burning Man culture, in order to limit their commercial use and comport with our Decommodification Principle, while our new nonprofit got off the ground (more info here). With the Project well-established by 2018, the trademarks transferred on schedule in April.

Source: burningman.org

Perhaps the intense scrutiny from this site helped to keep everyone honest.

BMorg are grumbling about a 2-cent per gallon water increase which would see the local town of Gerlach making $25,000 from water sales instead of $18,000.

“Unnecessarily increasing the price to consumers will drive business away,” said Burning Man Associate Director Chris Neary in a statement at a Dec. 5 meeting with the Gerlach General Improvement District, an 8-person board.

The money earned from Burning Man for water would help to pay off the loan that the town had to take out for the federally mandated water treatment facility, which cost about $1 million to construct, Jackson said. It costs another $40,000 or so each year to maintain the treatment facility, not including labor, Jackson said. 

“I thought maybe Burning Man could add $1 per ticket for Gerlach. That would be great,” said Jackson, who suggested the dollar could go toward infrastructural improvements. “But they said no.” Burning Man representatives at the December meeting said that they were grateful for Gerlach’s resources, but it seemed unfair for the expense of a municipal water system to fall on Burning Man’s nonprofit. 

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal

The hypocrisy of these people knows no bounds. “An increase in ticket price of $1 will drive consumers away”, when it comes to the local town of Gerlach that they invade every year. Yet an increase in price of hundreds of dollars over the last few years has only led to record population counts in Black Rock City, and record revenues for BMorg. $1 per ticket would be 0.17% of revenues – less than a tenth of what they spend sending their staff around the world.

The Org are also suing the Federal Government in an attempt to reduce their permit fees.

They still haven’t figured out what to do with Fly Ranch, which they acquired in 2016 for $7 million of Other Peoples’ Money. There’s a new contest for Burners to come up with ideas.


Other Statistics

Thanks very much to our Pershing County source who provided these graphs. Some of the information is available thanks to their FOIA requests.

Note: there is 2019 and even 2020 data included here. The financials above are from 2018.

Maybe a tiny slice of those bumper profits could be shared with the local communities that have to deal with the year-round consequences of this rave in the desert. You know…to make the world a better place.

[Featured image: Rene Smith]

Play)A(Skool Co-Founder Found GUILTY, Faces 32 Years

In 2017 we brought you the news that Play)A(Skool co-founder Scott Pack had been arrested in Colorado.

Founder of Play)A(Skool Indicted After Major Drug Trafficking Bust

The case is now complete, and the verdict is GUILTY on 6 felony counts.

Source: Westword

From CBS Denver:

Scott Pack, 41, was convicted of six felonies — two counts of pattern of racketeering and conspiracy (under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act), a first-class drug felony, conspiracy to cultivate marijuana, and two counts of securities fraud.

Pack, who now lives in California, faces up to 32 years in prison. He scheduled for sentencing on April 6.

According to Brauchler’s office, Pack was at the top of the business, Harmony & Green. Although it was a legally licensed marijuana business, Harmony & Green never produced any marijuana that was legally sold, never reported legal marijuana sales, and never paid marijuana-related taxes.

Pack also sought and obtained millions of dollars from investors to back the operation. Prosecutors called it a scam.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Darcy Kofol said, “This defendant thought he could avoid prosecution by having subordinates do all the dirty work. He thought he left no trail. He told them, ‘If anything happens to you, I have the money to hire the attorneys. So none of this can touch me’. He was wrong.”

The ring allegedly shipped pot to Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.

Among the others charged as a result of the investigation is Renee Rayton, a former Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Pack allegedly hired Rayton away from her position with the state‘s marijuana enforcement team where her responsibilities included inspecting marijuana warehouses for compliance.


The story at Westword has some further details about the operation:

 Investigators discovered 845 marijuana plants weighing 2,535 pounds worth more than $5 million...the beginning of an investigation that uncovered a major drug trafficking organization…illegally cultivating, processing and distributing marijuana and marijuana products to at least five states. The DTO [drug-trafficking organization] produced well over 300 pounds of marijuana each month at sites in Denver, Elizabeth and Colorado Springs. The distribution was arranged and executed throughout Arapahoe, Douglas and Elbert counties, and other locations along the Front Range.”

Read the full story at Westword.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 9 2020.

Pack is on the right. Image: 9news.com