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NEW YORK. — Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who has faced a stream of allegations by women accusing him of sexual assault, arrested yesterday in New York after he was indicted by a federal grand jury.

The indictment was sealed and details of the charges weren’t immediately announced by prosecutors, but the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Mr Damian Williams, confirmed in a statement that federal agents had Combs in custody.

“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Mr Williams said in a statement. Combs was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby, according to a person familiar with the arrest.

His lawyer, Mr Marc Agnifilo, said Combs had been cooperating with the investigation and had relocated to New York last week in anticipation of charges being brought.

“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Mr Agnifilo said, describing his client as a music icon and a “loving family man.”

“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Mr Agnifilo said in a statement, adding “please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

The criminal charges are a major but not unexpected take-down of one of the most prominent producers and most famous names in the history of hip-hop.

The federal investigation of Combs, 58, was revealed when Homeland Security Investigations agents served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25. A day after the raids, his attorney Mr Aaron Dyer called them “a gross use of military-level force,” said the allegations were “meritless.” Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, was at the centre of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s as the partner and producer of the Notorious BIG. — Agencies.