The Japan Times - Fugees rapper Pras Michel sentenced to 14 years in prison

In 2023, the 53-year-old founding member of the 1990s hit trio the Fugees was convicted of money laundering and campaign finance violations in a global foreign influence scandal led by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho.

The scheme funneled millions of dollars into former US president Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.

A jury had found Michel guilty on 10 criminal counts following a trial that included Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio as a witness.

In addition, Michel was found guilty of conspiracy, forgery, and acting as an undisclosed agent of a foreign government.

He was also tried for illegal lobbying on behalf of China in 2017, during the first Trump administration. He intended to request the extradition to Beijing of entrepreneur Guo Wengui, accused of defrauding thousands of investors to the sum of over $1 billion dollars.

Michel's attorney, Peter Zeidenberg, said his client would appeal and that the sentence was lop-sided.

"It is true that Mr. Michel was sentenced to 168 months," Zeidenberg told AFP following Thursday's sentencing.

"We believe the verdict was unsupported by the evidence and that the sentence is completely disproportional to the facts alleged, particularly when compared to his codefendants."

Zeidenberg was referring to others implicated in the case: Elliott Broidy, a former leading fundraiser for Donald Trump before his first presidency; George Higginbotham, a former US Department of Justice official; and Nickie Lum Davis, an American international businesswoman from Hawaii.

"Elliott Broidy was pardoned, George Higginbotham got 3 months’ probation, and Nicki Lum Davis received 24 months," Zeidenberg said in an email.

"There simply is no justification for Mr. Michel being singled out like this except for the penalty for opting for trial."

Justice Department prosecutors said last year that Michel had "betrayed his country for money" and "funneled millions of dollars in prohibited foreign contributions into a United States presidential election," warranting a serious sentence.

In the early 2010s, Low -- now a fugitive believed to be hiding in China -- used billions of dollars stolen from a Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB to invest in luxury US real estate, fine art and Hollywood films like DiCaprio's Wolf of Wall Street.

The exposure of the 1MDB scandal brought about the downfall of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's government in 2018 and his later conviction and imprisonment.

Michel was accused of helping Low secretly channel money into then-president Obama's 2012 campaign via shell companies, hiding the donations' origins.

Michel, originally from Brooklyn and a Haitian-American, founded the Fugees with his childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean.

The group won two Grammy Awards at the peak of their fame in the 1990s and sold tens of millions of albums.

S.Yamamoto--JT