UPI reports:

A formal complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission Thursday claims Sean “Diddy” Combs violated federal law during the U.S. presidential campaign.

The National Legal and Policy Center, NPLC, claims Diddy violated the Federal Election Campaign Act and the Internal Revenue Service Code, when he rallied support of Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, AllHipHop.com reported.

The NLPC alleges a Detroit rally conducted by Diddy’s non-profit group, Citizen Change, included speeches from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick urging the crowd to oust President Bush from office.

The complaint asks the FEC to investigate whether Diddy used his company’s corporate funds to illegally support Citizen Change.

The complaint also alleges Diddy may have used his “Vote or Die” campaign as a commercial endeavor to make money for his clothing line.

Here’s the NLPC’s press release on the complaint against the entertainer. The group has had past successes:

NLPC has a track record of success before the FEC. On March 26, 2004, the FEC fined two leadership PACs associated with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a total of $21,000 in response to an NLPC Complaint. On Jan. 13, 2004, the FEC ruled in response to another NLPC Complaint that Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) illegally failed to disclose large loans to her campaign just prior to her 2000 Senate election.

An FEC Complaint filed by NLPC on April 18, 2003 resulted in a Conciliation Agreement under which Al Sharpton had to pay a $5,500 fine for late filing of disclosure documents. Another Complaint, filed on Feb. 2, 2004 and extensively amended on Feb. 5, 2004, asked the FEC to deny Sharpton taxpayer matching funds.

On May 13, 2004, the FEC ruled that Sharpton must return $100,000 that he has received in federal matching funds. This followed the FEC’s April 29, 2004 ruling that payment on an additional $79,709, for which Sharpton had purportedly qualified, would not be made.

You can view a PDF file of the complaint against Diddy/Combs here.

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