The scheme funneled hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into former US president Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election marketing campaign.
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Published Nov 21, 2025 • 2 minute learn
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Washington (AFP) — A US courtroom sentenced rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel to 14 years in jail for involvement in a billion-dollar Malaysian rip-off that funnelled cash into American politics, his lawyer confirmed Friday.
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In 2023, the 53-year-old founding member of the Nineties hit trio the Fugees was convicted of cash laundering and marketing campaign finance violations in a worldwide overseas affect scandal led by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho.
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The scheme funnelled hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into former US president Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election marketing campaign.
A jury had discovered Michel responsible on 10 felony counts following a trial that included Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio as a witness.
In addition, Michel was discovered responsible of conspiracy, forgery, and performing as an undisclosed agent of a overseas authorities.
He was additionally tried for unlawful lobbying on behalf of China in 2017, throughout the first Trump administration. He meant to request the extradition to Beijing of entrepreneur Guo Wengui, accused of defrauding 1000’s of traders to the sum of over $1 billion.
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Michel’s lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, stated his consumer would attraction and that the sentence was lopsided.
“It is true that Mr. Michel was sentenced to 168 months,” Zeidenberg informed AFP following Thursday’s sentencing.
“We imagine the decision was unsupported by the proof and that the sentence is totally disproportional to the info alleged, significantly when in comparison with his codefendants.”
Zeidenberg was referring to others implicated within the case: Elliott Broidy, a former main fundraiser for Donald Trump earlier than his first presidency; George Higginbotham, a former US Department of Justice official; and Nickie Lum Davis, an American worldwide businesswoman from Hawaii.
“Elliott Broidy was pardoned, George Higginbotham obtained 3 months’ probation, and Nicki Lum Davis acquired 24 months,” Zeidenberg stated in an e mail.
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“There merely isn’t any justification for Mr. Michel being singled out like this apart from the penalty for choosing trial.”
Justice Department prosecutors stated final 12 months that Michel had “betrayed his nation for cash” and “funnelled hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in prohibited overseas contributions right into a United States presidential election,” warranting a severe sentence.
In the early 2010s, Low — now a fugitive believed to be hiding in China — used billions of {dollars} stolen from a Malaysian state funding fund often known as 1MDB to put money into luxurious US actual property, superb artwork and Hollywood movies like DiCaprio’s Wolf of Wall Street.
The publicity of the 1MDB scandal introduced concerning the downfall of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s authorities in 2018 and his later conviction and imprisonment.
Michel was accused of serving to Low secretly channel cash into then-president Obama’s 2012 marketing campaign by way of shell corporations, hiding the donations’ origins.
Michel, initially from Brooklyn and a Haitian-American, based the Fugees together with his childhood buddies Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean.
The group received two Grammy Awards on the peak of their fame within the Nineties and offered tens of hundreds of thousands of albums.
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