What is racketeering conspiracy and why was Sean Diddy Combs acquitted?

The jury declared music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs not guilty on charges of racketeering on Wednesday after a seven-week-long trial. Diddy was arrested in September 2024 over charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The music mogul had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The 12-member jury found Combs guilty of only two of the 5 counts, which could lead him to serve jail time of 20 years.

The jury deliberated over its decision for over 13 hours, spanning over two days, and reportedly found it difficult to decide on the racketeering charge, the most serious of the five, which carries a possible life prison term.

So, what is the racketeering charge, which is more commonly used against mobsters?

What is racketeering?

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge. The law in the US was created to tackle mob bosses but it has since then been used in other trials, including for sex trafficking – a charge that was common in both Diddy's well as R&B singer R Kelly’s cases.

The charge is also sometimes used against a group of defendants. US President Donald Trump and his allies were accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia - charges that Trump denied.

Why was it difficult to press charges of racketeering against Diddy

To convict the music mogul of the charge, prosecutors had to prove he used his network of associates to run a criminal enterprise and commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging, and obstruction of justice.

The network would typically include his employees, who prosecutors say played a part in setting up the "freak-offs".

During the seven-week-long trial, the Prosecution’s key witnesses, including two of Diddy’s former girlfriends, stated they were coerced to have sex with male escorts while Diddy watched. Diddy’s legal team claimed the encounters were all consensual.

In a raid on his Los Angeles mansion, police found supplies that they said were intended for use in freak-offs, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

The defence had undermined the racketeering allegations by asking witnesses whether Combs' employees ever witnessed the freak-offs.

The jury was divided on the fact that Cassie Ventura, the star witness for the prosecution, claimed she did not think they were present, even though she was forced to have sex with other men.

Defence lawyers argue that the case cannot be considered to be racketeering if members if Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

As the verdict was read out on Wednesday , Combs, 55, smiled and looked relieved. He shook hands with one of his lawyers and said "thank you" to members of the eight-man, four-woman jury as they left the courtroom.

Judge Arun Subramanian also thanked the jury for their service before dismissing them. "You listened, you worked together, you were here every day, rain or shine," he said. “You did so with no reward, other than the reward that comes from answering the call of public service.”