An appeals court ruled
in favor of Sean “Diddy” Combs yesterday (Jan. 11) in Manhattan Supreme
Court, tossing a civil lawsuit filed by former Bad Boy Entertainment executive
Kirk Burrowes.
Burrowes filed a $25 million
lawsuit against Combs , claiming the CEO of Bad Boy was also head of a violent
group of thugs dubbed “The Enterprise” that forced him out of a
stake in Bad Boy Entertainment.
The former Bad Boy executive
claimed that Combs threatened him with threats of physical violence using a
baseball bat and forced him to relinquish a 25% interest in Bad Boy Entertainment.
Burrowes also claimed that
Combs thwarted a management deal he had in place with hit R&B singer Mary
J. Blige and that Combs never followed through with a profit-sharing agreement.
The lawsuit garnered significant
amounts of press in 2003, when Burrowes claimed “The Enterprise”
was responsible for the murders of Suge Knight affiliate Jake Robles in 1995
and later Tupac Shakur in 1996.
Combs immediately shot down
the allegations, as did a judge in 2003, when the lawsuit was dismissed because
of a "limitless number of deficiencies."
"The allegations are
pure fantasy," Combs told AllHipHop.com shortly after Burrowes filed the
initial lawsuit. "Kirk Burrowes hasn’t been employed (with Bad Boy) for
seven years and now he makes up a fictional story for financial gain. He should
be ashamed of himself.”
Burrowes appealed the decision,
but yesterday an appeals court ruled that the allegations, which are almost
10-years-old, are too old for the case to proceed.
Burrowes was later charged
in August of 2004 with laundering $1 million dollars in drug money through a
bogus company known as Gutter Keys.
He was freed on
a $250,000 bond and claimed he was setup by an informant with faulty information.
