Prakazrel ‘Pras‘ Michel, the former member of the music group Fugees, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in a foreign influence scheme that illegally funneled millions of dollars into US politics.
Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, US district judge, handed down the sentence in a Washington DC court on Thursday.
In 2023, Michel, 53, was convicted on 10 criminal counts in a trial that featured Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio as a witness.
The charges included money laundering, illegal lobbying, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, witness tampering, and campaign finance violations.
According to the justice department, Michel masterminded a vast international scheme in which he received $120 million from Low Taek Jho, a Malaysian financier seeking political influence in the United States.
He channelled part of the money through about 20 straw donors, who then contributed to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
Low, the businessman who funnelled money to Michel, was accused of stealing about $4 billion from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund in the infamous 1MDB scandal.
In 2018, Michel joined another effort to persuade the Donald Trump administration and the justice department to drop the federal embezzlement investigations against Low, while also pushing for the extradition of a Chinese dissident to China.
Last month, a court ordered Michel to forfeit nearly $65 million for his role in the conspiracy.
Prosecutors urged the court to impose a life sentence, arguing that Michel had lied “unapologetically and unrelentingly” to execute his scheme.
They said he “betrayed his country for money” and spent nearly a decade trying to exploit and deceive multiple arms of the US government, including the White House and the FBI, as well as his own accomplices.
Peter Zeidenberg, Michel’s lawyer, however, argued that the verdict was unsupported by evidence and that the recommended sentence was “completely disproportional” to the case.
He asked the court to give Michel three years in prison, arguing that his client’s actions and Low’s political goals were unrelated.
He claimed Low “simply wanted to obtain a photograph with himself and then-President Obama”.
He added that Michel plans to appeal.
Michel formed Fugees with fellow New Jerseyans Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill in 1990.
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