The liquor giant Diageo has issued a point-by-point rebuttal to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawsuit, rejecting the rapper/entrepreneur’s claims that he and his vodka and tequila brands were mistreated and discriminated against. Rather, Diageo claims it consistently provided support to Combs’ brands, Ciroc and DeLeón, and that Combs “asked to be paid millions of dollars more under threat of publicly accusing Diageo of racism.”
Combs sued Diageo back in May, accusing the company of failing to invest resources into Ciroc and DeLeón and treating them as “urban” products. Further allegations emerged in July when an unredacted version of the filing was released: For instance, Combs claimed Diageo developed a watermelon-flavored version of DeLeón over his objections and that Diageo’s President of Reserve and New Business Stephen Rust admitted to him that “race was part of the reason Diageo limited the neighborhoods where the Combs brand were distributed.”
Diageo called the claims “false and reckless” at the time and continued to say as much in their new filing. The liquor company insisted it has “disproportionately supported and grown the DeLeón brand despite Combs Parties’ repeated failures to live up to their own commitments.” They also said, “Combs has focused on one thing only: his own self-enrichment.”
To that end, Diageo accused Combs of repeatedly seeking lucrative payouts while threatening to go public with accusations of racism against the company. “For example, in May 2021, following Diageo’s public commitment of $100 million to help with COVID recovery for the hospitality sector and underprivileged communities, Mr. Combs demanded that Diageo pay him $100 million and threatened then to ‘reach out to every news outlet’ to ‘burn the house down’ and cause maximum damage to Diageo and the DeLeón brand, by making public accusations racism if Diageo refused to write the check.”
A lawyer for Combs did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Among the items Diageo denied in its new filings were Combs’ claims about the watermelon tequila and the comments allegedly made by Rust. Of the watermelon-flavored tequila, Diageo said it presented that flavor “along with other tequila flavors” to Combs because of the success of Ciroc Summer Watermelon. “The Cîroc Summer Watermelon flavor had been Mr. Combs’ idea. Mr. Combs endorsed and promoted these initiatives, often involving his adult children and friends as paid influencers and spokespersons.” (The lawsuit also includes a photo of Combs smiling while holding a bottle of Ciroc Summer Watermelon.)
Diageo also called the allegations about Rust’s comments “unequivocally false,” adding: “To the contrary, Mr. Rust was one of Mr. Combs’ greatest champions at Diageo. Indeed, it was Mr. Combs himself who expressed, in the context of business challenges, that ‘this wouldn’t be happening if I were Martha Stewart.’”
Furthermore, Diageo rejected Combs’ claims that his liquor brands have been marketed to “urban” consumers, saying it “categorically denies that it has employed racial stereotypes in the sales and marketing of Ciroc and DeLeón or that it has limited or positioned them as ‘ethnic brands.’” And while Diddy’s lawsuit cited an internal Diageo presentation that referred to Ciroc as an “urban African American brand tied to one personality,” Diageo insisted that phrase was used in a presentation prepared by a third-party consultant — and it was used to “describe a possible misperception” about Ciroc.
Diageo also touted its own commitment to diversity and equity throughout the lawsuit and instead accused Combs of showing little interest in such endeavors. “When invited to join Diageo’s diversity initiatives, including the Pronghorn initiative and providing financial support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (‘HCBUs’) (among others), Mr. Combs declined to participate, and in fact tried to discourage Diageo from working with other African-American business people or influencers on the Pronghorn initiative,” the lawsuit claims.
Diageo’s filing comes several weeks after a judge rejected the liquor company’s motion to either dismiss or send the lawsuit to private arbitration. The next court date is currently scheduled for Oct. 10. Diageo and Combs ended their business relationship in June after the initial lawsuit was filed.