Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a Grammy‑winning rapper and founding member of the 1990s hip‑hop group the Fugees, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for illegally funneling foreign money into former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. The Washington, D.C., case led to his 2023 conviction on 10 counts after a high‑profile trial that featured testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar‑Kotelly on Thursday sentenced 52‑year‑old Prakazrel “Pras” Michel to 14 years in federal prison in Washington, D.C., according to court proceedings reported by multiple outlets. Michel declined to address the court before sentencing.
In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel on 10 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, campaign finance violations and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The trial, held in Washington, D.C., drew wide attention in part because it included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
According to court filings cited by the Associated Press and PBS, Justice Department prosecutors argued that Michel “betrayed his country for money” after obtaining more than $120 million from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, and steering some of those funds through straw donors into Obama’s 2012 campaign. Prosecutors also said Michel tried to thwart a Justice Department investigation into Low, tampered with two witnesses and then perjured himself at trial.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life term, prosecutors told the court, a punishment they said would reflect “the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed.” Low, a fugitive believed to be living in China, was one of the primary financiers of the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” starring DiCaprio, and has denied wrongdoing in connection with the broader 1MDB scandal.
Defense attorney Peter Zeidenberg, who represented Michel at trial, called the 14‑year prison term “completely disproportionate to the offense” and said his client will appeal his conviction and sentence. Zeidenberg had urged the court to impose a three‑year prison term, arguing that a life sentence would be an “absurdly high” punishment typically reserved for deadly terrorists and major drug cartel leaders. In a court filing, Michel’s lawyers wrote that “the Government’s position is one that would cause Inspector Javert to recoil” and showed how the guidelines could be manipulated to produce “absurd results.”
Michel, a Brooklyn native whose parents immigrated to the United States from Haiti, co‑founded the Fugees with his childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. The group’s 1990s blend of hip‑hop, reggae and R&B produced two Grammy Awards and album sales in the tens of millions.
In August 2024, Judge Kollar‑Kotelly rejected Michel’s bid for a new trial. The motion had argued, among other alleged errors, that his then‑lawyer’s use of a generative AI program in preparing closing arguments was improper. The judge ruled that those and other claimed missteps did not amount to a serious miscarriage of justice.
