A Washington DC federal court ruled rapper Pras Michel on Wednesday guilty of 10 charges, including money laundering, conspiracy and espionage for a foreign country. The penalty will be communicated in the coming weeks and could lead to up to 20 years in prison. Pras Michel – stage name of Prakazrel Samuel Michel – is 50 years old and is best known for having been one of the founders of the Fugees, one of the most famous hip-hop groups of the 1990s, together with Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean.
According to the indictment, in recent years Pras Michel would have received 20 million dollars from the Malaysian financier Jho Low to influence US policy in various ways in favor of the latter. Jho Low is known to be at the center of a huge financial scandal involving the Malaysian investment fund 1MDB, from which he allegedly embezzled more than $4 billion.
In 2012, Pras Michel allegedly used more than $800,000 provided to him by Jho Low to finance the re-election campaign of US President Barack Obama, through some fake donors (election funding by foreigners is illegal in the United States). In the following years, during the Donald Trump administration, he would also be paid by Jho Low to pressure the US government to drop the charges against him for the 1MDB scandal. He also lobbied on behalf of members of the Chinese government to try to obtain the extradition of a dissident Chinese businessman, Guo Wengui, who was arrested in the United States in another case of fraud.