- Mark Cuban says he’s “sure glad” that he wasn’t close to rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
- Combs was arrested and indicted on sex trafficking charges by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
- Cuban said he only worked with Combs’ designers on a set of jerseys for the Dallas Mavericks.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says he’s relieved he kept his distance from rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“I’m sure glad that I didn’t hang out with him,” Cuban told comedian Theo Von in the latest episode of the latter’s podcast “This Past Weekend,” which aired on Wednesday.
The “Shark Tank” star added that while he had met and worked with Combs before, he didn’t interact with Combs outside work.
“Actually, back in 2003, he reached out to me, to the Mavs, and wanted to design a uniform for us. And I never met him — we did it all via email, and so he had some of his designers get in touch with me. And they put together some — and it was a cool-looking uniform, right?” Cuban said, referencing the work Diddy’s designers had done for his NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks.
“We used it for a couple years, but that was the extent of my connection to Diddy,” he said, adding that Combs’ parties weren’t his “scene.”
Cuban and representatives for Combs didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Combs was arrested in Manhattan on September 16 following a grand jury indictment.
The controversial music mogul was hit with three felony charges, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution, per the unsealed indictment.
Combs was known for hosting high-profile white parties annually between 1998 and 2009 at his New York and Florida homes.
Combs’ former party guests — which included stars like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher — have remained silent amid his legal troubles.
“The name of the game right now is distance, and the more distance they can supply between themselves or the more distance they can create between themselves and Diddy, the better it is for them,” Evan Nierman, the CEO of the crisis-PR firm Red Banyan, told Business Insider’s Callie Ahlgrim and Jacob Shamsian.
Combs is now being held in New York’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center. At MDC, he’s bunking in with disgraced crypto entrepreneur founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Business Insider reported on September 24, citing a person familiar with the situation.
Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence after he was found guilty of seven criminal counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Manhattan sex-trafficking case. He will remain in jail until his next court appearance, which is scheduled to take place on October 9. If convicted, Combs could face life in prison.
