Pras Michel, a founding member of Fugees, has begun a 14-year prison sentence for money laundering and illegal lobbying after turning himself in.
The rapper, who was convicted in 2023 of charges including money laundering, illegal lobbying, and campaign finance violations, turned himself in to the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona, on Thursday (April 30).
“Today is a painful day for Pras, for his family, and for everyone who believes in a fair system of justice,” Michel’s spokesperson, Erica Dumas, said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
“Pras honors the legal process as he reports to begin his sentence. The FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] related charges that led to his conviction are being vigorously contested on appeal, and his legal team believes the record will show that his rights were violated and the truth was obscured. This chapter is difficult, but it is not his final one.”
“He has to fight it on the inside,” Dumas added. “His appeal is in the very beginning stages. As you can imagine, it’s a very complicated case with lots of files.”
Federal prosecutors indicted Michel in 2019, accusing him of making illegal contributions to President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. They later expanded the charges to include bank fraud, concealment of material facts, witness tampering, violations of the FARA Act, and acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China.
The charges stemmed from his apparent association with disgraced business mogul Jho Low, real name Low Taek Jho, who was accused of embezzling $4.5billion from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. Low has denied all accusations and maintains his innocence.
Last year, outlets including Billboard and Consequence reported that Michel allegedly worked on his behalf, and deliberately failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He was also accused of pouring huge sums of money into the presidential administrations of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump in an attempt to influence them.
These allegedly included putting millions into Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign through straw donors, and by lobbying Donald Trump’s administration to bring the DOJ’s investigation into the 1MDB scandal to a halt. In return, Pras was allegedly paid millions of dollars.
In April 2023, the musician was found guilty on 10 federal counts including witness tampering, money laundering, lying to banks, illegal lobbying, and campaign finance violations. At the time, it was widely reported that he rejected a deal that would have seen him spend just 16 months in prison and have the government return some of the money seized from his accounts.
Instead, Pras turned down the offer and demanded that the full amount of the money seized from the government from his accounts be returned to him, but was later sentenced to 14 years in prison and required to forfeit over $64million as part of the sentence, and has three years probation.
The legal issues led to Fugees having to cancel their 2021 reunion tour, although they did play a few gigs together in 2023.
The 1MDB scandal was one of the biggest cases of financial fraud in history, and centered on a state-owned investment fund initiated by former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak in 2009. He was jailed in 2020 for absorbing US$756million from the fund into his personal bank accounts.
Low was alleged to be the mastermind behind the financial scandal, despite never holding an official position in the company, and allegedly used some of the money he stole to fund Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Michel’s trial included testimony from Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the lead role in the Scorsese film. The actor claimed that Low used some of the money to both help make the 2013 movie and get more influence in Hollywood.