Diplo faces more accusations of revenge porn in new lawsuit

Thomas Wesley Pentz, the DJ and producer also known as Diplo, is facing a federal lawsuit regarding the alleged distribution of revenge porn. A woman identified as Jane Doe claims to have connected with Diplo via Snapchat in April 2016 when she was 21 years old and was engaged in a sexual relationship with him through October 2023, after which she “learned that Pentz had been distributing images and videos of their sexual encounters without her knowledge or consent,” per Vanity Fair. This is the second lawsuit filed against Diplo concerning the distribution of revenge porn.

According to legal documents obtained by Vanity Fair, Jane Doe had expressed to Diplo that she didn’t want their sexual encounters filmed without her consent, nor did she consent to his distributing images of her to others. In November 2023, a woman Doe didn’t know reached out and informed her that she’d received images and video of Doe having sex with the DJ from Diplo in October 2018. Doe’s suit alleges that Diplo has continued to distribute these videos and images up to the present day. Doe reportedly filed a criminal complaint with the New York Police Department in November 2020; her lawsuit was filed in California.

Diplo has worked with a number of major stars, including Justin Bieber, Usher, Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Beyoncé, Shakira, Ariana Grande, and many more. He first broke through producing the track “Paper Planes” by M.I.A., who he was dating at the time. The rapper (who is controversial in her own right) has said that Diplo resented her success, accusing him of being “controlling” of her life and career. One, he “literally smashed my hotel room and broke all the furniture because he was so angry I got picked up by a major label and it was the corniest thing in the world that could possibly happen,” she told Rolling Stone in 2015.

In 2020, he was accused by a woman named Shelly Auguste of sexual assault and distributing revenge porn. Diplo denied these allegations, claiming that Auguste had been stalking and harassing him; in 2022, an arbitrator granted him $1.2 million “after finding that Auguste’s social media posts violated a mutual restraining order she had signed with Pentz,” according to Vanity Fair. Auguste still has an active lawsuit for claims including sexual battery and defamation against Diplo, for which a civil trial is scheduled in January 2025.

In a statement to the outlet, Doe’s attorney Helene Weiss said, “Tragically, this is not the first time the defendant has shamed and violated a woman by disseminating intimate images without her consent. Diplo’s alleged illicit pattern of behavior illustrates the harm he’s caused Jane Doe, and other young women just like her.”