Fugees star Pras Michel jailed 14 years over illegal foreign donations to Obama campaign

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, best known as a member of 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for orchestrating a scheme that funnelled millions in illegal foreign contributions into Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

Michel chose not to address the court before US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly delivered the sentence on Thursday. The trial in Washington, DC featured testimony from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, underlining just how far the case reached into political and celebrity circles.

The sentencing follows Michel’s conviction on 10 felony counts in April 2023, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Prosecutors said he obtained more than $120m from fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, and used straw donors to secretly channel part of that money to Obama’s campaign.

Low remains wanted for his central role in the 1MDB scandal, one of the largest financial frauds in history, which saw billions siphoned from Malaysia’s state investment fund. Several figures linked to the scheme have already been convicted, including former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2022, later reduced.

Court filings described Michel as someone who “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes” while funnelling illegal money into the US electoral system. It is illegal for foreigners to donate to American election campaigns or to pay others to donate on their behalf.

“Prakazrel Michel betrayed his country for money. He funnelled millions of dollars in prohibited foreign contributions into a United States presidential election and attempted to manipulate a sitting president to serve a foreign criminal and a foreign power,” prosecutors said.

The case went further than campaign finance violations. Prosecutors also accused Michel of trying to derail a Justice Department investigation into Low and the broader 1MDB scandal, as well as “tampered with witnesses and then perjured himself at trial”.

While sentencing guidelines suggested the possibility of life imprisonment, Judge Kollar-Kotelly settled on a 14-year term after weighing the scope and seriousness of the crimes. Prosecutors urged the court to consider “the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed”.

Michel’s legal team pushed back hard, arguing that Low’s intent was not political influence but social access.

“Instead, Low simply wanted to obtain a photograph with himself and then-President Obama,” his lawyers said.

Defence attorney Peter Zeidenberg called the sentence “completely disproportionate to the offence” and “absurdly high”, noting that such terms are usually reserved for terrorists or major drug traffickers. He confirmed Michel will appeal, having sought a three-year sentence instead.

Michel, a Brooklyn native whose parents emigrated from Haiti, rose to global fame alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean as part of the Fugees, one of the most commercially successful hip-hop groups of the 1990s, with multiple Grammys and millions of albums sold.