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Callarogashark Media. Welcome back to a special bonus episode of
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Did He Do It? The Daily Podcast, bringing you every raw,
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unfiltered detail from the Sean Diddy Combs sex trafficking and
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racketeering trial. I'm Nate Oliver. This will be my last
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episode as host of Did He Do It? As we
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expanded to something way more exciting. Will now be known
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as Celebrity Trials, the daily true crime podcast that covers
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the biggest trials happening right now or happening soon, and
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takes you back to the greatest courtroom dramas that ever
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captivated the world. We'll even have a new host, Read Carter.
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Why Celebrity Trials? Because here's the thing. Even if they
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weren't famous before they walked into that courtroom, the trial
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made them a celebrity. These trials become cultural moments that
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define our times, and we're going to be there for
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all of it, every day, every revelation, every bombshell. So
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please follow us or subscribe and be a part of
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this revolutionary daily true crime podcast. While we wait for
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the jury to deliberate Sean Combs's fate, I want to
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take you deep into one of the most compelling aspects
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of the prosecution's case, the money trail. The jury is
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now behind closed doors, weighing six weeks of testimony and
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mountains of evidence. But today, while we wait for their verdict,
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I want to focus on something that may prove crucial
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to their deliberations. The financial forensics that prosecutors say proved
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did he didn't just participate in criminal acts, he orchestrated
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and funded them through his billion dollar business empire. Over
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the past six weeks, federal prosecutors didn't just present allegations
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of abuse and coercion. They methodically traced a financial paper
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trail spanning more than a decade, from American Express charge
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to cash app transfers, from hotel damage fees to wire transfers.
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The government's case wasn't just built on witness testimony. It
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was built on receipts. Literally, let me start with a
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number that kept coming up in testimony. Two thousan four
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hundred and ninety dollars. That's what Ditty was charged for
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damages at the Trump International Hotel after just one night.
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But it wasn't an isolated incident. Special Agent Joseph Cercilo
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testified about a pattern of hotel bills that included charges
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for oil damage, deep cleaning, and, in one particularly graphic example,
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bodily fluids stained the wood. These weren't just wild celebrity
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parties gone wrong, according to prosecutors, These were the receipts
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for what they called freak offs, the alleged drug fueled
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sexual encounters that formed the core of their case, and
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someone had to pay for them. That someone, prosecutors argued,
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was always Ditty's business empire. Bad Boy Entertainment didn't just
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produce use music. According to the government, it was the
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financial engine that made alleged crimes possible. Let's talk about
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how this worked. Derek Ferguson, bad Boy Entertainment's former chief
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financial officer, walked the jury through the company's financial structure.
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He testified that large sums of cash were routinely kept
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on hand for Ditty's personal use. Assistants would be reimbursed
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for purchasing everything from baby oil and lubricant to drugs
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and hotel suites. The jury saw invoices, expense reports, and
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credit card statements, all showing how corporate funds allegedly flowed
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to facilitate what prosecutors called criminal activity, but the money
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trail goes deeper than expense reports. Prosecutors presented evidence of
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a sophisticated system designed to obscure the true nature of
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these payments. Hotel rooms were booked under aliases like Frank
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Black and Janet Clark. Male escorts were often paid in
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cash to avoid creating paper trails, and when electronic payments
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were necessary, they were often broken into smaller amounts or
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sent to shell accounts. Take the case of Jane, one
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of Ditty's alleged victims, who testified under a pseudonym. Prosecutors
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showed the jury how Ditty allegedly used his financial resources
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to control every aspect of her life. He paid her
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ten thousand dollars a month rent, covered her legal bills,
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and even continued financial support after their romantic relationship ended.
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But this wasn't generosity, prosecutors argued, it was control. Jane
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testified that Ditty explicitly tied this financial support to her
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participation in freak offs. When she resisted, he would threaten
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to cut off her rent payments. When she tried to leave,
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he would dangle financial security as a reason to stay.
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The money wasn't just facilitating alleged crimes. It was the
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weapon used to coerce participation. The prosecution's financial evidence showed
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payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years,
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flight invoices for male escorts, hotel bills in multiple cities,
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cash withdrawals time to coincide with alleged freak off parties.
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Agent Serra Cielo testified that investigators identified more than forty
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arranged sexual encounters between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty
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four alone, each one requiring coordination, travel and payment. But
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here's where the financial evidence becomes particularly damning. The specificity.
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This wasn't just Ditty throwing money around carelessly. The evidence
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suggests a level of planning and organization that prosecutors say
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proves criminal intent. Consider the logistics revealed in court. Prosecutors
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showed text messages where Ditty's chief of staff, Christina Korum,
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coordinated with assistance to bring up fifteen bath towels and
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re up on baby oil for a wild King Knight.
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Another assistant was tasked with picking up cash for Jane.
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These weren't spontaneous purchases, they were line items in what
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prosecutors called a criminal enterprise. The money trail also revealed
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the hierarchy of Diddy's organization. Koram, as chief of staff,
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had access to corporate accounts and could authorize payments. Assistants
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like Brendan Paul and Jonathan Perez were given cash and
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corporate credit cards to make purchases. Security chief Fahim Mohammed
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coordinated travel and logistics. Each person had a role, and
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each role was funded by the business empire. The prosecution
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also highlighted how this financial structure enabled witness intimidation and
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cover ups. After Cassie Ventura filed her explosive lawsuit in
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twenty twenty three, investigators found evidence of payments to potential witnesses.
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The infamous one hundred thousand dollars payment to hotel security
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supervisor Eddie Garcia wasn't just hush money. It was a
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business expense processed through the same financial systems that funded
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every other aspect of the alleged operation. What makes this
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financial evidence particularly powerful is its objectivity. Witnesses can be
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cross examined, their motives questioned, their memories challenged, but bank
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records don't lie, credit card statements don't have ulterior motives.
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Hotel invoices don't change their story on cross examination, the
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defense tried to argue that these payments proved nothing more
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than Diddy's generosity and his unconventional lifestyle. They painted the
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financial support as gifts between consenting adults, the hotel bills
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as evidence of wild but legal parties. But prosecutors countered
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by showing the pattern every payment, every expense, every transaction
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served the same alleged purpose facilitating and concealing sexual trafficking.
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The government also presented evidence of how this financial structure
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was designed to avoid accountability. Payments were often made in
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cash to avoid creating records. When electronic transfers were necessary,
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they used coded language and aliases. Corporate accounts were used
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to give legitimate cover to illegitimate expenses. Perhaps most damming
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was the evidence of financial manipulation. Prosecutors showed how Ditty
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allegedly used money as both carrot and stick, rewarding compliance
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and punishing resistance. Jane's testimony about rent threats was corroborated
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by actual lease documents and payment records. The jury could
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see exactly how financial dependence was allegedly weaponized. The scale
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of the financial operation was staggering. Over more than a decade.
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Prosecutors estimated that millions of dollars flowed through this system,
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from Bad Boy Entertainment corporate accounts to personal credit cards,
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from cash payments to wire transfers. The money touched every
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aspect of what they called a criminal enterprise. But the
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financial evidence also revealed something else, the vulnerability of victims.
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Jane testified about feeling trapped because she couldn't afford her
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rent without Ditty's support. Other witnesses described similar finance dependence.
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The money wasn't just funding alleged crimes, it was creating
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the conditions that made escape difficult. The prosecution's use of
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financial evidence was particularly effective because it made abstract concepts concrete.
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It's one thing to allege coercion. It's another to show
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the exact amount of rent money used as leverage. It's
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one thing to claim organizational structure. It's another to present
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corporate expense reports that itemize the tools of alleged abuse
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more in a moment. Looking at the broader implications, this
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financial evidence represents a new approach to prosecuting powerful defendants,
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rather than relying solely on victim testimony, which can be
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challenged and discredited. Prosecutors use the defendant's own business records
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against him. Every corporate payment, every expense report, every invoice
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became evidence of criminal intent. The defense fought back by
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arguing that the prosecution was criminalizing Ditty's lifestyle and business practices.
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They insisted that wealthy celebrities often live unconventionally, make unusual purchases,
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and support friends and romantic partners financially. But the sheer
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volume and specificity of the financial evidence made this argument
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difficult to sustain. What emerged from the financial testimony was
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a picture of an operation that was both intimate and industrial,
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personal enough that Ditty was directly involved in many transactions,
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but organized enough that it required corporate infrastructure to sustain.
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This wasn't just a man with too much money and
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too few boundaries, According to prosecutors, this was a business
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designed to facilitate crime. The money trail also revealed the
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human cost of these alleged crimes. Beyond the physical and
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emotional trauma described by witnesses, there was financial trauma. The
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way alleged victims were made dependent, then had that dependence
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used against them. The way financial support was offered as
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comfort then wielded as control. As the jury continues their deliberations,
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this financial evidence may prove to be the prosecution's strongest asset.
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While witness testimony can be disputed and motives questioned, the
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money trail tells a story that's harder to explain away.
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Every payment, every invoice, every transaction is a piece of
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a puzzle that prosecutors say reveals the true nature of
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Ditty's empire. Whether the jury sees these financial records as
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evidence of criminal enterprise or simply the excesses of celebrity
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lifestyle may determine Ditty's fate. But one thing is clear.
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In an age where everything leaves a digital footprint, following
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the money has become one of the most powerful tools
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prosecutors have. This has been a special bonus episode of
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Did He Do It and will bring you the latest
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breaking news from the trial as soon as the jury
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reaches their verdict. Please subscribe or follow so you get
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alerts when the verdict is announce and join us tomorrow
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as we become Celebrity Trials with Reed Carter. I'm Nate Oliver.
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Thanks for listening, and we'll be right back when justice
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has served.