Diddy paid off the mortgage on a $48.5 million Miami mansion while awaiting his arrest

A grand jury indicted Combs on charges of sex trafficking, organized crime and illegal transportation of people for sexual exploitation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, had proposed a $50 million bail package, covered by the Miami home, and offered six passports – Combs’ and five family members’ – to prove he was not a flight risk.

Combs was ultimately denied bail on Wednesday and was jailed before his criminal trial began, with the judge arguing that he might try to flee, commit acts of violence or interfere with the investigation into the charges against him.

Still, the proposed bond package offers a glimpse into Combs’ lavish lifestyle.

The proposed bond package was primarily secured by the singer’s Star Island home, which his lawyers said was worth $48.6 million. Combs also offered the equity value of his mother’s Miami home as collateral, according to court documents.

Combs’ legal team cited a third-party appraisal dated June 28, 2022, that valued his home, named Two Star and located at 2 Star Island Drive, at $48.5 million.

According to the Miami-Dade real estate appraisal site, the property’s market value is $44.3 million, while its assessed value in 2024 is $30.4 million. He bought the house in 2003 for $14.5 million.

Related Posts

According to the appraisal, the house has seven bedrooms and two guest toilets on a living area of ​​around 1,400 square meters. There are several swimming pools and a spa as well as a pool house with cabanas.

The legal team also noted that Combs paid off the $18.8 million mortgage on the Star Island home in August because he expected criminal charges.

In court, Agnifilo described the decision as “terrible” because it was made “because we knew this day would come.”

“We paid off the mortgage because that’s what builds trust,” Agnifilo said. “And we did these things to build trust in a real and substantive sense. This is not a show. Nobody makes bad financial decisions just for a show. It was important. And I told him that was an important thing.”

Star Island has many wealthy residents

Other prominent residents live in Star Island, an exclusive neighborhood in Biscayne Bay, which is part of Miami Beach.

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin bought a property on Star Island for $75 million in 2022 – the most expensive of several properties he owns on the island. Griffin also sold a property on Star Island to former baseball player Alex Rodriguez for $18.5 million and bought it back a year later for $45.5 million.

The oval island is only 55 acres in size and has fewer than 50 houses arranged around a central ring road.

Other homes on the island are fetching even higher prices than Combs’ $48.5 million home, which was estimated to be valued at.

A 10-bedroom home was listed for $68 million in August 2023. It sold for $57 million the following month.

Combs also owns the neighboring property at 1 Star Island Drive, which he purchased in 2021 from singers Gloria and Emilio Estefan, a married couple, for $35 million. The appraisal presented to the court includes Combs’ $35 million purchase of the neighboring property as a comparable sale and some other deals on and off the island. That home was not part of the proposed package.

Combs built a large fortune over the course of his 30-year career

Over the course of his three-decade career, Combs has amassed a fortune estimated at $1 billion.

At his label’s peak in the late 1990s, Bad Boy Records was generating nine-figure annual revenues – enough to negotiate a $55 million advance with the label’s partner, Forbes reported in 1999.

Outside of music, he founded or was involved in the marketing of a number of companies, including the clothing label Sean John and the vodka brands Cîroc and Tequila DeLeón.

As a brand ambassador for Cîroc, Combs negotiated a deal in which he was paid per case sold. According to court documents, Combs earned nearly $1 billion during his 15-year partnership with Diageo, the parent company of Cîroc and DeLeón.

He cashed in with Sean John in 2016 when he sold his stake in the company for around $70 million, Forbes reported at the time.

The money enabled Combs to live a lifestyle that he often boasted about.

In addition to his home on Star Island, he owns a mansion in Los Angeles, which he recently put up for sale for $61.5 million.

He also owns a private plane called LoveAir, which his lawyer says he is trying to sell, as well as a jewelry collection full of diamonds and watches and an art collection that includes works by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

With this wealth came enormous power, which prosecutors say he used to orchestrate his crimes.

“Combs and other members and employees of the Combs Enterprise used the power and prestige of Combs’ role at the Combs Enterprise to intimidate, threaten, and lure female victims into Combs’s orbit,” the indictment states.