Diddy will rely on the lawyers of the leader of the NXIVM cult in his defense of alleged sex trafficking.

If and when music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs faces trial for allegedly running a “Freak-Offs” sex trafficking and organized crime ring, he will have a brand-new law firm with experienced criminal defense attorneys who have previously represented former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, convicted of money laundering, and NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere, convicted of sex trafficking.

New York-based Agnifilo Intrater opened less than seven months ago, on March 1, but the small boutique firm of just three lawyers, currently handling arguably the most high-profile criminal defense case in America, has plenty of experience in doggedly defending suspected crooks and perverts.

The Agnifilo in Agnifilo Intrater is Marc Agnifilo, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan and supervisor of the U.S. Attorney’s Office who subsequently worked for 18 years for Combs’ longtime attorney Ben Brafman at his law firm Brafman & Associates.

During his time there, Agnifilo worked on some of the firm’s most high-profile cases. He served as lead counsel to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French economist and former director of the International Monetary Fund. His sexual assault case collapsed in 2011 and was withdrawn by prosecutors over concerns about the plaintiff’s credibility. (His wife, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, then a prosecutor in New York, had to withdraw from the case because of the marital conflict.)

He also represented so-called “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, a convicted fraudster who was banned for life from the pharmaceutical industry after he raised the price of an anti-malaria drug commonly given to HIV patients from $17.50 to $750 per pill in 2015.

His most prominent clients in recent years have included Ng, a former Goldman banker who was convicted of aiding and abetting the embezzlement of billions from a now-collapsed Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, and NXIVM leader Raniere.

Like Combs, Raniere was accused of trafficking people through front organizations, in his case purported self-help and personal development seminars and services that also hid a violent and abusive cult. Raniere, 64, is currently serving a 120-year prison sentence imposed in 2020.

At Agnifilo’s side during the Shkreli, Ng and Raniere cases was his protégé Teny Geragos, the young daughter of prominent criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos.

Her father represented Winona Ryder in her 2002 shoplifting trial, Chris Brown in his 2009 case in which he pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna, and he briefly represented Michael Jackson, along with Bragman, in his 2004 molestation trial before the singer left him because he spent too much time handling other clients.

Geragos worked at Brafman & Associates for eight years, overlapping with Agnifilo’s, and left the company with him to form Agnifilo Intrater. The younger Geragos has even taken to TikTok to defend Combs, posting messages from his alleged victims implying that she was exonerating him in a new and unusual defense strategy.

“We went through a lot together, we were like two people going through hell together,” Agnifilo told the New York Law Journalworking with Geragos. “Like Virgil and Dante, we came out the other side and saw the stars.”

The third lawyer at Agnifilo Intrater, Zach Intrater, is not listed in the Combs case. He is another veteran of Brafman & Associates.

It’s clear why Combs chose Brafman’s disciple as his defense attorney – Brafman was his longtime attorney and secured his acquittal in a gun possession and bribery case in 2001. Combs was so fond of his lawyer at the time that he called him “Uncle Benny.” Brafman also represented him in several civil cases, including a personal injury case in 2011.

It is unclear why Combs dumped “Uncle Benny” – who represented the mogul as of November 2023 – when his ex Cassie Ventura filed a sexual assault lawsuit against him.

“I have always considered Ben a mentor,” said Agnifilo Business Insider in July. “He fought Puffy’s battle 25 years ago, and now I get to fight it.”

“I wish them well, but my company continues to thrive,” Brafman said in February of his departed subordinates. “In fact, we have never been busier.”