Global Courant 2023-04-27 02:26:32
A jury on Wednesday convicted Grammy Award-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of hip-hop group The Fugees of criminal charges of conspiring with a Malaysian financier to orchestrate a series of foreign lobbying campaigns to influence the US government under two presidents.
His sentencing in federal court in Washington followed a trial that was filled with political intrigue and featured high-profile witnesses, including Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Michel, who endured a blistering cross-examination by prosecutors while testifying in his own defense, was charged with 10 counts of conspiracy, acting as an agent of a foreign government, witness tampering and falsifying campaign finance records.
Prosecutors charged him with conspiring with Malaysian businessman Jho Low to try to influence the administrations of former US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
Low, who also faces separate federal charges in New York for embezzling $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, remains at large.
The Fugees won two Grammy Awards for their best-selling 1996 album The Score. According to prosecutors, in 2012 Michel was in dire need of money and found a solution through Low, who was known to throw elaborate parties and pay celebrities large sums of money.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio testifies at Michel’s trial in this April 3 court sketch. (Bill Hennessy/Reuters)
‘Free money’
Prosecutors said Michel agreed to funnel about $2 million from Low to Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign in exchange for receiving millions of dollars. Because federal election law prohibits foreigners from donating to U.S. campaigns, prosecutors said Michel concealed the source of the money.
Michel was also accused of trying to convince the Trump-era Justice Department to drop civil and criminal investigations into Low over the 1MDB scandal and lobbying the US government on behalf of China to imprison Chinese billionaire and dissident Guo. Wengui return to China.
On the witness stand, Michel said the $20 million Low paid him over the course of nine months in 2012 was to help Low secure a photo with Obama. Michel acknowledged using some of the money to pay three of his friends to attend two political fundraisers for Obama’s campaign in 2012, but denied doing so at Low’s direction.
“Once he gave me the money, it was my discretion how I spent the money, because it’s my money,” Michel told the jury, describing the payment as “free money.”
When asked if he had not registered as a foreign agent, Michel told jurors that his lawyer, George Higgenbotham, never told him that he was required by law to do so.
Michel also said he passed information to the FBI about China’s desire to have Guo extradited amid China’s concerns that Guo was “allegedly a criminal rapist”, saying he “thought this was something that the FBI should know”.
Higgenbotham, who has since pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme, told jurors that at Michel’s urging, he met with China’s ambassador to Washington to assure the Chinese that the Trump administration was working to extradite Guo.
Guo, who was never extradited, has since been charged in New York with unrelated fraud.
