Three More Victims Are Preparing to Testify Anonymously Against the Shameless Musician, According to a New Filing

Casandra “Cassie” Ventura is prepared to testify against her former partner Sean “Diddy” Combs — and she’ll be using her name to do so.

In a motion filed Friday, April 4, prosecutors announced that “Victim-1” will not testify anonymously at Combs’ upcoming trial, where he faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, trafficking in $3x, and transportation to engage in $3x activity. PEOPLE has exclusively confirmed with sources that Ventura, 38, is Victim-1 and that she will testify at the trial.

“She is prepared to testify under her own name,” the filing states. “Victim-2, Victim-3, and Victim-4 have requested that their identities not be disclosed to the press or the public.”

Prosecutors requested that the anonymous victims “be referred to at trial only by pseudonyms,” and the court asked the defense not to share identifying information about them.

“This case has received an extraordinary amount of media coverage, which will likely only increase as the trial proceeds,” prosecutors said. “Allowing these measures would prevent unnecessary disclosure of the victims’ identities, and the harassment from the media and others, unnecessary embarrassment, and other adverse consequences that would almost certainly result if these women were forced to reveal their real names to the public at trial.”

Rolling Stone previously identified “Victim-1” as Ventura in January.
Combs, 55, was first charged with three counts of trafficking in $3x extortion and transportation to engage in a racketeering operation in September 2024. The latest indictment against Combs, unsealed by federal prosecutors in New York City on April 4 and later obtained by PEOPLE, includes an additional count of trafficking in $3x and transportation to engage in a racketeering operation.

The indictment states the new charges involve a second victim.

Representatives for Ventura and Combs have not yet responded to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

The indictment alleges that Combs and his associates would lure people with the lure of $3x romance before using “force, threats of force, and coercion” to entice them into participating in “$3x performances” — which prosecutors describe as “elaborate and staged $3x performances” that the infamous music mogul allegedly forced others to participate in.

The new $3x trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion indictment alleges that Combs “recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, procured, advertised, maintained, patronized, and solicited [Victim-2], and attempted, aided, and abetted, and knowingly caused [Victim-2] to engage in $3x commercial acts, knowing and disregarding the fact that Victim-2 was engaging in $3x commercial acts by force, fraud, and coercion.”

Ventura first made headlines in May 2024 when CNN released surveillance video that allegedly captured Combs chasing and beating her in a hotel in March 2016.

The footage, filmed at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, shows Ventura walking toward a bank of elevators as Combs chases her, then grabbing her by the neck and throwing her to the floor before turning around to violently kick her and snatching her purse and suitcase.

In the same footage, Combs allegedly grabbed, pushed, and kicked Ventura during a fight — and the footage corroborated the allegations she made in the lawsuit that was now settled and filed in November 2023.

In another filing on March 13, Combs’ legal team claimed CNN altered the footage by purchasing the only known copy of the surveillance footage, uploading it to free editing software, and editing the original video.

“All of CNN’s video footage has been significantly altered in key respects,” the letter to Judge Arun Subramanian reads. “This includes masking the time and then altering the video sequence. It also includes speeding up the video to make it appear falsely that the actions in the video are occurring faster than they actually are. As a result, CNN’s videos do not fairly and accurately portray the events at issue.”

“It is not surprising that Combs is making a disingenuous argument to exclude the offensive video from being shown to the jury at the upcoming trial,” Ventura attorney Douglas Wigdor said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time. “I believe that the video fairly and accurately reflects what happened, will be admissible as evidence, and that Combs will be held accountable for his despicable actions.”

Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting trial on federal charges, which are scheduled for May 5. He has pleaded not guilty.

He is also named as a defendant in more than 60 lawsuits alleging $3x misconduct. Combs has denied the allegations.