On the seventh day of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ongoing federal trial, Cassie Ventura’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified that she wired $20,000 to Combs out of fear for her daughter’s safety after he allegedly threatened to release explicit sex tapes.
Ventura said the situation unfolded in December 2011, around the same time her daughter emailed her warning that Combs was threatening to expose two sex tapes and have someone harm her and rapper Kid Cudi (Scott Mescudi), who Cassie was seeing at the time. According to the mother, Cassie sent the email under the alias “Veronica Bang,” and even included one of Combs’ employees in the message thread.
“The threats that have been made towards me by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs are that he is going to release two explicit sex tapes of me,” the email read, according to Ventura’s testimony. “One on Christmas Day, maybe before or right after, and another one sometime soon after that. He has also said that he will be having someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi physically.”
Regina Ventura told the court she felt “physically sick” reading the message. She said Combs had also contacted her directly around that time, claiming he needed $20,000 to “recoup money” he had spent on Cassie and expressing anger that she was now in a relationship with someone else.
Feeling threatened, Ventura said she and her husband took out a home equity loan to gather the money. Combs’ bookkeeper reportedly sent wiring instructions, and Ventura wired the money from their joint account to a Bad Boy business account.
“I was scared about my daughter’s safety,” she testified.
Roughly four or five days later, Ventura said the money was returned to her account, though there was no follow-up or explanation from Combs.
This testimony further supports earlier claims made by Cassie and federal prosecutors about a pattern of threats and coercive behavior. Combs has denied all allegations,
