Diddy’s Mom Sued For Seizing Bad Boy Ent From Co-Founder Kirk Burrowes

Sean “Diddy Combs is facing yet another legal woe as his former business partner, Kirk Burrowes, has filed a lawsuit alleging he used intimidation and violence to seize control of Bad Boy Entertainment, which he co-founded. The court documents accuses Diddy of brandishing a baseball bat in 1996 to intimidate Burrowes into signing over his 25 percent stake in the label to Janice Smalls-Combs, his mother. In the legal filings, the alleged harassment occurred in May 1996 in Burrowes’ New York City office. The lawsuit states that Combs, accompanied by Bad Boy Entertainment attorney Kenneth Meiselas, stormed in with a baseball bat and pressured Burrowes to relinquish his shares. “By words and actions, Sean Combs and Kenneth Meiselas frightened and intimidated and assaulted plaintiff (Burrowes) and forced him to turn over his share certificate for 25 shares of Bad Boy Entertainment to Sean Combs,” the lawsuit states. The filing further alleges that Burrowes, overwhelmed with fear, had “tears streaming down his face” and was “clearly unable to resist under the circumstances.” Smalls-Combs, who wasn’t present at the time of the incident, allegedly claimed ignorance of the encounter when Burrowes sought her advice. However, he claims she was complicit, directing the entire scheme behind the scenes. Although Smalls-Combs wasn’t there for him at the time, he alleged that he provided personal counsel to her many times during alleged instances of physical abuse at the hands of her son. He claims to have witnessed Diddy “aggressively overpowering” his mother and using “derogatory slurs” against her. The 62-year-old asserts that Smalls-Combs, 84, played part of an orchestrated effort to take over control of the company, and since then, it has left him homeless in New York City with extreme financial hardship. At one point Burrowes also served as President of the company, as well as chief operating officer and general manager.

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