Music and business mogul Sean “Deedee” Combs was convicted of a felony and transferred to another prison in Pennsylvania, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed.
Combs was transferred from the Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey to FCI Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania.
About two weeks ago, NBC News reported that Combs obtained cellphones, alcohol and other contraband at the Fort Dix federal prison. The disgraced music mogul also paid inmates to cook, clean, make his bed and even give him a Chinese massage.
“For privacy, safety and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement of anyone in our custody, including the reasons for transfers,” a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons wrote.
In a previous NBC News report, Combs had someone who cooked for him and someone who cleaned for him. Someone made his bed and someone did his laundry. There was even a man who gave him a Chinese massage. All this is according to four people who worked in the same department as the disgraced hip-hop mogul. They were granted anonymity and could speak freely about life inside the prison.
“This isn’t some ordinary stuff you see in prison. This is some money stuff,” one of the men said. “This seems crazy, but it’s Dee Dee again.”
This story is also based in part on photos and videos taken inside the prison and reported by NBC News. It included footage of Combs appearing to use a prohibited cellphone.
The disgraced hip-hop mogul arrived at the Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey in October after being sentenced to 50 months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters.
Since then, he has spent thousands of dollars a month bringing his high-end lifestyle to the low-security prison, according to NBC News.
Lawyers for “Diddy” Sean Combs returned to court on Thursday, asking the Court of Appeal to overturn his conviction and prison sentence. They claimed his infamous “bizarre” recording was free speech, while the judge questioned whether the sentence was too harsh. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield reports.
Experts say federal prisons often move inmates to special housing units when they become the subject of investigations.
“While we were collecting evidence, we would put people into the SHU,” said Vito Maraviglia, a retired Bureau of Prisons special investigator who worked at Fort Dix in the late 1990s.
Maravilla said New Jersey prisons are considered among the most comfortable in the federal prison system. It divides housing areas that are harder to monitor than other facilities, making it easier for inmates to hide and use prohibited items like cell phones.
“For someone as high-profile as this, with so much money, I’m surprised they put him in a place like Fort Dix,” Maravilla said.
Inmates housed in the SHU are locked in a cell with one other person for at least 23 hours a day, according to two men who have spent time at Fort Dix. Inmates are allowed to read a book or two and a wind-up radio, and they are required to wear orange jumpsuits instead of the usual khaki uniforms or gray sweatpants and shirts, sources said.
Meals are delivered on trays, but access to the concession stand is restricted and showers are only allowed a few days a week. Otherwise they must be washed in the sink, sources said.
“It was terrible out there,” one source said.
Renowned criminal defense attorney Ben Brafman has been awarded the Robert Louis Cohen Honor Award by the New York Criminal Lawyers Association for professional excellence throughout his more than 40-year legal career. Brafman has served as defense counsel in several high-profile cases in New York, and some of his clients include Plaxico Buress, Sean Combs, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Martin Shkreli and Harvey Weinstein.
This is not the first time Coombs has been held in solitary confinement at Fort Dix. Last summer, he was placed in a special facility after a fight with another inmate.
He was later kicked out of the prison’s drug treatment program but continued to pay inmates to provide him with a range of services, NBC News reported Tuesday.
The story drew reactions from people including Combs’ nemesis 50 Cent and celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who sued Combs on behalf of a woman who accused him of raping her more than 20 years ago. (Combs has denied the allegations and the case is ongoing.)
“These serious allegations against Mr. Coombs require an immediate federal investigation and appropriate federal action, including prosecution, if the charges that he possessed and used a cell phone while incarcerated are proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Allred said in a statement.
Combs’ trial last year centered on a drug orgy he organized called “Freaks.” It involves male sex workers and his ex-girlfriends – including singer Cassie – who filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years of physical and sexual abuse. (The case was settled, and Combs denied any wrongdoing.)
The trial ended in a split verdict, with a New York jury finding him not guilty on more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering that could have sent him to prison for life.