P Diddy is being sued to the tune of $19 million by a former colleague who claims he is owed monies relating to a Notorious BIG recording from way back in the day in 1994.
The plaintiff is James Sabatino, previously a consultant for Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment, who personally paid for Biggie, real name Christopher Wallace, to fly to Miami to perform live and record songs back in 1994. Because he paid for the trip, Sabatino had a deal with Wallace that he would own the recordings made that day.
After Wallace's untimely death in 1997, Diddy and Sabatino reached a deal in which the former pledged to buy the recordings for $200,000. The Bad Boy mogul paid $25,000 upfront, and reportedly pledged to pay the rest within sixty days. But then Sabatino was declared to be "of interest" to LA police investigating Wallace's murder, because the two had been meant to meet on the day Wallace was shot, but Sabatino had stood the rapper up.
Diddy promptly put his deal with Sabatino on ice, not keen to be seen to be doing a deal with someone being investigated for involvement in Biggie's shooting. Sabatino claims that he didn't take action to secure the rest of his money at the time because Diddy was interviewed by police investigating the murder, and he was frightened Diddy might make accusations against him if they were on bad terms (in fact Diddy seemingly told police he didn't believe Sabatino was in anyway involved in the shooting).
Anyway, Sabatino has since been cleared of any involvement in Biggie's murder, has subsequently been jailed over a totally unrelated matter, and, crucially, still hasn't been paid the outstanding $175,000 for those 1994 recordings. He claims that whenever he approaches Diddy's people they make promises that the money is forthcoming, but no cheque ever arrives. Hence the lawsuit.
Diddy is yet to comment on the litigation.