Sean “Diddy” Combs was the only defendant charged this week in a sweeping investigation into sex trafficking and organized crime.

But federal prosecutors made it clear that they do not believe he is the only person responsible.

The 14-page indictment against Combs accuses the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment of luring female victims and using violence, coercion and drugs to get women to participate in “freak-offs” – elaborate sex performances that were often recorded and sometimes lasted several days.

The case suggests an extensive network, a complicated plot that would have required not only the knowledge but also the involvement of several people to recruit victims, organize the outbursts and cover the tracks so that the police could not intervene.

“Combs did not do this alone,” said Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in announcing the charges. “He used his company and employees of that company, as well as other close associates, to get his way.”

Williams declined to comment on whether further charges would follow, but said the investigation was “active and ongoing.”

“I can’t take anything off the table,” he said. “Anything is possible.”

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including federal organized crime charges – a charge most commonly brought against organized crime figures. John Gotti, James “Whitey” Bulger and associates of the Mexican Mafia and the South LA Crips have all faced this charge in the past.

Authorities said Combs’ power and money allowed him to evade detection for years, but some legal experts say the indictment could change that.

Matt Murphy, a former prosecutor who spent four years investigating sex crimes in Orange County, said the wall of secrecy could soon fall.

The allegation of organized crime means that criminal charges could be brought against anyone involved in the operation, Murphy said, explaining: “There are people who have seen such things and who now have to worry about their own criminal interests.”

This could put pressure on employees to testify against Combs, he said.

“We don’t know yet, but I’m sure there are insiders in his organization who will be prosecuted and will testify as federal witnesses,” Murphy said.

According to court documents, prosecutors claim they obtained information from “dozens of victims and witnesses” – as well as communications data from sex workers and travel documents and records, including “dozens of video recordings (Combs) made of freak offs with victims.”

“This indictment only mentions Combs, even though it describes many other participants,” said Laurie Levenson, a criminal justice professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor. “Then you ask the question, ‘Are all of these participants going to get a deal (from prosecutors) or are some of them going to join the defendant?'”

Federal prosecutors say Combs used his billion-dollar music and business empire to commit the alleged crimes. According to the indictment, security guards, domestic staff, personal assistants and other employees participated in the crimes – and helped cover up the criminal activity through violence, intimidation, manipulation, bribery and threats.

The indictment states that in the run-up to the alleged freak-offs, employees and partners were tasked with luring female victims to participate, “often under the pretext of a romantic relationship.”

Others were tasked with booking hotel rooms and stocking them with what prosecutors called “freak-off supplies,” such as drugs, baby oil, lubricant, lighting and extra bedding.

Combs’ employees and associates were also instructed to arrange travel for victims, hire sex workers, provide Combs with large sums of cash to pay the sex workers, and stock rooms at Combs’ request.

In the days that followed, the complaint says, staff gave Combs and others IV fluids to help them recover. Others were assigned to clean rooms “to prevent damage to the rooms.”

Combs and others also used drugs, threats to cut off financial support, videos of the freak-offs and their influence in the entertainment industry to prevent victims from participating and going public, the indictment says.

“The victims believed they could not refuse (Combs’) demands without jeopardizing their financial security or their jobs or without fearing consequences in the form of physical or emotional abuse,” the indictment states.

Employees of Combs’ business partners, according to the indictment, helped with the embezzlement of evidence and monitored the victims to ensure that they did not leave hotels or Combs’ homes.

The prosecution also points to a 2016 video leaked to CNN in May showing Combs kicking and dragging his then-girlfriend Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura.

After a member of hotel security intervened, Combs attempted to bribe him, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors also alleged that after learning of a possible investigation, Combs and his associates contacted women and pressured them to tell a false version of events, or bribed or threatened them.

In one case, prosecutors said Combs called a victim to solicit her “friendship” and then tried to convince her that she committed the act voluntarily.

Mary Graw Lary, a professor at the Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC, and former director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse, compared the charges against Combs to sex crimes and allegations against celebrities such as Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly.

In many of these cases, there were numerous people with knowledge of the events, and yet it took years for the allegations to come to light.

“There are many, many people who are aware of and promote this kind of sexual exploitation of vulnerable women, and yet no one speaks out against it, and that is worrying,” said Graw Lary.

Wealth is one of the means of keeping suspected illegal activities secret, but according to Graw Lary, influence, power and the public image of the individual also play a role.

She pointed to the child pornography charges first brought against Kelly in 2002 and the considerable public opposition prosecutors faced at the time. Kelly was acquitted of those charges in 2008.

It was only years later, after similar allegations emerged in articles by journalist Jim Derogatis, that new investigations were launched and Kelly was convicted in 2022 on several charges, including sex trafficking and organized crime.

“It’s secret from the public because power is part of the preparation,” she said. “Because it’s a pillar of society, a source of power, this is not shared with the general public or there is resistance that the public would accept it.”

Combs’ lawyers vowed to fight the charges.

“He’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said in court this week. “He came to New York to prove his innocence. He’s not afraid; he’s not afraid of the charges. There’s nothing the government said in their presentation today that would change anyone’s mind about anything.”

Combs was remanded in custody and was not released on bail. His lawyers have appealed the ruling, arguing in a letter to the judge that the music star took several steps to prove he was not a flight risk, including traveling to New York with the intention of turning himself in to authorities and handing over his passport to his lawyers.

A judge on Wednesday ordered Combs to remain in custody until his trial.