American Scandal

In September 2024, a Michigan circuit court judge issued a stunning $100 million default judgment against hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs after he failed to appear at a hearing. The plaintiff was Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a 51-year-old inmate serving time for sexual assault and kidnapping, who claimed Combs had drugged and assaulted him at a 1997 Detroit-area afterparty. Days later, the judgment was vacated.

Between 1926 and 1950, Georgia Tann ran the Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an unlicensed adoption agency that trafficked an estimated 5,000 children to wealthy out-of-state families. Her black market operation involved kidnapping, coercion, forgery, and systematic abuse—generating over $1 million in illegal profits before state investigators closed her operation.