Justice Division prosecutors accused Grammy-winning rapper Pras Michel of betraying his nation for cash.
A United States district choose has sentenced Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a member of Nineties hip-hop group the Fugees, to 14 years in jail for illegally funnelling hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in international contributions to former US President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election marketing campaign.
Michel declined to handle the court docket earlier than Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him on Thursday. The trial in Washington, DC, included testimony from former Legal professional Normal Jeff Classes and Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
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This week’s sentencing got here after a federal jury convicted Michel on 10 counts, together with conspiracy and appearing as an unregistered agent of a international authorities, in April 2023.
Michel obtained greater than $120m from fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho – also called Jho Low – and steered a few of that cash by way of straw donors to Obama’s marketing campaign.
Low is needed for his main position within the 1MDB scandal, wherein billions of {dollars} have been pilfered from Malaysia’s state funding fund in one of many largest monetary frauds in historical past.
A number of senior monetary figures and members of Malaysia’s authorities have been convicted for his or her position within the scandal, together with disgraced former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was handed a 12-year prison sentence in 2022, which was later halved.
Court docket paperwork, filed by Justice Division prosecutors on Thursday, mentioned the 52-year-old Grammy-winning rapper “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to hold out his schemes” as he syphoned unlawful funds from Low to the Obama marketing campaign.
It’s unlawful within the US for foreigners to donate to election campaigns, in addition to to pay another person to make a marketing campaign contribution.
“Prakazrel Michel betrayed his nation for cash. He funnelled hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in prohibited international contributions right into a United States presidential election and tried to govern a sitting president to serve a international felony and a international energy,” prosecutors mentioned.
Prosecutors additionally mentioned Michel had tried to finish a Justice Division investigation into Low and the 1MDB scandal, in addition to “tampered with witnesses after which perjured himself at trial”.
Choose Kollar-Kotelly was suggested by prosecutors that federal sentencing pointers advisable a life sentence for such crimes, urging her to bear in mind the “breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the dangers to his nation, and the magnitude of his greed”.
Michel’s legal professionals downplayed the extent of his crimes, saying Low’s motivation for donating cash was to not “obtain some coverage goal”.
“As a substitute, Low merely needed to acquire {a photograph} with himself and then-President Obama,” Michel’s legal professionals wrote.
Low – who stays in hiding and claims innocence – courted America’s wealthy and well-known throughout a years-long spending spree allegedly financed by funds stolen from 1MDB.
Notably, he was one of many major financiers of the 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Avenue, starring DiCaprio.
Defence lawyer Peter Zeidenberg mentioned Michel will enchantment.
He labelled his consumer’s 14-year sentence “utterly disproportionate to the offence” and “absurdly excessive” given such phrases are sometimes reserved for lethal terrorists and drug cartel leaders.
As a substitute, Zeidenberg advisable a three-year jail sentence for Michel.
Michel, a Brooklyn native whose mother and father immigrated to the US from Haiti, was a founding member of the Fugees together with childhood associates Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. The group gained two Grammy Awards throughout their peak within the Nineties and offered tens of hundreds of thousands of albums.
