Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was convicted on Wednesday for his role in a multi-billion-dollar money laundering scheme as well as his clandestine work lobbying for foreign entities. Pras Michel was found guilty on ten counts including campaign finance violations, money laundering, illegal lobbying, witness tampering, and lying to banks. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Pras purportedly worked on behalf of Low Taek Jho, aka “Jho Low”, a fugitive businessman accused of siphoning over $4 billion from a Malaysian state investment fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Prosecutors alleged that Michel funneled millions of dollars into former Barack Obama‘s 2012 presidential campaign through straw donors. Then while Donald Trump was in office, Michel attempted to influence the Department of Justice to squash an investigation into the 1MD scandal.
Additionally, Michel was accused of attempting to persuade the U.S. government to extradite a government dissident back to China even though he never registered as a foreign agent for his lobbying work, as is required by law. Prosecutors said Michel was paid tens of millions of dollars for his fruitless efforts.
Michel testified in his own defense, explaining that Low told him he wanted a picture with President Obama in 2012 and was willing to pay millions of dollars to get it. The rapper went on to state that he used part of the money he received from Low to pay for friends to attend fundraising events. He contends that nobody ever told him that was illegal. Prosecutors argue that Michel instead was donating the money on Low’s behalf.
The far-reaching implications of Low’s financial activities even dragged actor Leonardo DiCaprio into the courtroom for Michel’s trial. Low used part of his fortune to help finance Martin Scorcese‘s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street as part of a larger plan to win influence in Hollywood. Low went on to donate funds to Leo’s namesake environmental foundation, though the Oscar winner said he cut off communication with Low in 2015 after learning of his involvement in 1MD. Donald Trump’s former attorney Jeff Sessions also testified at Michel’s trial, stating that he was aware of the campaign for Chinese extradition though he did not know of Pras’ involvement specifically.
Last January, Fugees were due to set out on a 25th-anniversary tour for The Score. After playing just one show in New York City, the trio of Pras, Wyclef Jean, and Lauryn Hill canceled the outing as reports circulated that the government was investigating Michel. While under investigation, court records show that Michel texted straw donors from burner phones telling them not to cooperate with investigators.
Before going to trial, Michel reportedly rejected a plea deal that would have had him cop to charges of obstruction of justice and a lesser violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The deal would have put him in prison for up to 16 months and seen a partial sum of his $40 million seized by the government returned to him. Michel allegedly rejected the deal and demanded all of his seized money be returned.