Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: 'Jane' testifies on 'hotel nights' with Combs: 'Lonely and sad'

With Bad Boy Entertainment CFO Derek Ferguson on cross-examination, the defense showed the jury an organizational chart of Sean Combs’ businesses, with its array of executives, two of whom, including Ferguson, were educated at Harvard Business School.

The defense contended that the organizational chart showed Combs atop an empire of legitimate, often successful ventures in music, television and liquor while he is on trial for allegedly running a criminal enterprise.

Ferguson agreed with defense attorney Marc Agnifilo that it was common for people in the entertainment industry to employ personal assistants.

“I think there’s a whole laundry list of things they would possibly be involved in,” Ferguson testified.

Ferguson also testified that he agreed with Agnifilo that security personnel were part of the business.

“In order to keep him safe, they would be with him?” Agnifilo asked.

“Personal protection, yes,” Ferguson told the court.

“They were paid by the company, correct?” Agnifilo asked.

“Generally,” Ferguson testified in response.

“Their job, from what you understood, was to be in close proximity to Mr. Combs so that no one would do anything of a dangerous nature?”

“Yes,” Ferguson told the court.

Prosecutors have alleged Combs, his bodyguards and assistants carried out a racketeering conspiracy, which Combs denies.

With Sean Combs’ former chief financial officer on the witness stand, jurors saw a series of wire transfers related to a payment described earlier in the trial by Cassie Ventura’s mother.

Regina Ventura testified that she and her husband took out a home equity loan to fund the payment that she alleged in testimony that Combs demanded to “recoup” money he had spent on her daughter “because he was angry that she had a relationship with Scott Mescudi," the rapper known as Kid Cudi.

The jury saw a Dec. 14, 2011, transfer from an account set up to manage Combs’ home in Alpine, New Jersey to Cassie Ventura for $20,000.

On Dec. 23, 2011, the same account received $20,000 from Ventura’s father. Four days later, on Dec. 27, the account transferred $20,000 for “return of funds.”

Ferguson is now under cross-examination. He told the jury he grew up in the Bronx, attended Stuyvesant High School and Harvard Business School and left a prestigious job at another record company to work for Combs.

“What I observed with Bad Boy at the time and Sean Combs was a company that was giving a lot of young executives opportunities from communities I grew up in,” Ferguson testified.

Derek Ferguson, who worked in several capacities for Sean Combs for nearly 20 years, including 12 years as chief financial officer for Bad Boy Entertainment, took the witness stand.

Ferguson walked the jury through Combs’ bank accounts, financial structures, how the businesses managed cash and how employees were reimbursed for expenses on their corporate cards. Several of Combs’ assistants previously testified about purchasing supplies for so-called "freak-off" sexual encounters at Combs' behest.

Ferguson testified after Eddy Garcia, who told the jury that he received $100,000 in cash after giving Combs a thumb drive containing video footage of the 2016 Combs attack on Cassie Ventura at the InterContinental Hotel.

Court is now taking its lunch break.

Frank Piazza, who also will testify about the video, is expected to be the next witness, followed by Bryana Bongolan, who has filed a civil suit against Combs and has accused him of dangling her off a balcony, an accusation Combs has denied.

Once their testimony concludes, another alleged Combs victim, who will testify under the pseudonym "Jane," is expected to take the stand beginning Wednesday afternoon.

According to Eddy Garcia's testimony, once he told Sean Combs “I had it,” referring to the InterContinental Hotel's security camera video footage of Combs' 2016 attack on Cassie Ventura, he testified that he was provided with an address that was 20 minutes from the hotel.

“He wanted the video as soon as possible,” Garcia told the court.

Garcia testified that someone who introduced himself as Combs’ bodyguard met him in the lobby of a building and brought him up to an apartment, where he told the court Combs was “smiling, excited” and looking happy.

“'Eddie my angel,' he was smiling. He said ‘come in,’ making me feel comfortable,” Garcia testified Combs told him. He also told the court that Combs instructed his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, to make Garcia a cup of tea.

Garcia told the court he handed over a USB drive containing the video and assured Combs it was the only copy.

“I told him that I did have a concern that if there was to be a police report made at a later time that it would affect me,” Garcia testified. “He said I didn’t have to worry about that.”

Garcia told the jury that Combs then contacted Cassie Ventura via FaceTime. “She was wearing a hoodie and the lighting wasn’t that great,” Garcia testified. “Before he passed the phone over to me, he said, ‘Let him know that you want this to go away, too.’”

“And how did Cassie respond?” prosecutor Mitzi Steiner asked.

“When I got passed the phone, I said 'hi.' She said 'hi' and she said she had a movie coming out and it wasn’t a good time for this to come out and she wanted it to go away,” Garcia testified.

Garcia further testified that Combs demanded copies of his ID and those of his supervisor, Bill Medrano, and Henry Elias, another security officer he told the court was on duty the night of the incident.

The jury saw copies of their drivers licenses as well as copies of the non-disclosure agreement and certification that there was only one copy of the video, which Garcia testified he was made to sign.

Garcia then testified that Combs left the room and allegedly returned with a brown bag and a money counter. Garcia told the court that there were “stacks of money being put in through it. Stacks of $10,000 at a time.”

“In total at the end, it was $100,000,” Garcia told the court.

Garcia testified Combs asked him if he wanted to count the money and he responded, “I said I trusted the machine."

According to Garcia's testimony, Combs and a bodyguard accompanied him out of the suite and walked him to the valet where his car was parked. “He asked me how I would spend the money and I said I didn’t know,” Garcia testified. “He said not to make any big purchases.”

Garcia testified that later, he noticed that neither the incident report nor the video file attached to it were in the hotel’s records.

A few weeks later, Garcia testified, he received a message from Combs.

“Happy Easter, Eddy my angel. God is good,” Garcia testified the message said before Combs “proceeded to ask if anyone had asked about the video.”

Garcia told the court that he told Combs he'd heard nothing.

Garcia’s testimony concluded with minimal cross-examination from the defense. Garcia agreed with defense attorney Brian Steel that Combs had treated him professionally.

The next witness is Derek Ferguson, former chief financial officer of Combs Enterprises.