{"id":584037,"date":"2025-11-21T05:18:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T05:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584037\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T05:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T05:18:20","slug":"pras-michel-fugees-who-betrayed-us-for-money-is-jailed-for-14-years-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584037\/","title":{"rendered":"Pras Michel: Fugees ‘who betrayed US for money’ is jailed for 14 years | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Grammy-winning rapper who “betrayed his country for money” has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, who was part of 1990s hip-hop group The Fugees, was convicted of illegally funnelling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department had accused the 53-year-old of accepting $120m (\u00a392m) from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who wanted to gain political influence in the US.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The Fugees after winning Grammys in 1997. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Michel “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his actions” – and sought to deceive the White House, senior politicians and the FBI for almost a decade.<\/p>\n

In 2018, it is claimed he urged the Trump administration and the justice department to drop embezzlement investigations against Low.<\/p>\n

Michel was convicted of 10 counts by a federal jury in 2023<\/strong><\/a> – and last month, he was ordered to forfeit about $65m (\u00a350m) for his role in the scheme.<\/p>\n

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio testified at the trial,<\/strong><\/a> and Low was a primary financier in his 2013 film The Wolf Of Wall Street.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-winning actor said the businessman’s funding and legitimacy had been carefully vetted before they entered a partnership.<\/p>\n

\"Low<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Low Taek Jho. AP file pic <\/p>\n

Prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence to “reflect the breadth and depth of Michel’s crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed”.<\/p>\n

However, the rapper’s lawyer Peter Zeidenberg has argued that the 14-year term is “completely disproportionate to the offence” – and is vowing to appeal.<\/p>\n

Last year, a judge rejected Michel’s request for a new trial after claiming that one of his lawyers had used AI during closing arguments.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Strictly star ‘arrested on suspicion of rape’<\/a>
The Stone Roses bassist Mani dies aged 63<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Wyclef<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel formed The Fugees in the 1990s<\/p>\n

Low Taek Jho has been accused of having a central role in the 1MDB scandal, amid claims billions of dollars were stolen from a Malaysian state fund.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old is a fugitive but has maintained his innocence, with his lawyers writing: “Low’s motivation for giving Michel money to donate was not so that he could achieve some policy objective.<\/p>\n

“Instead, Low simply wanted to obtain a photograph with himself and then President Obama.”<\/p>\n

Michel, who was born in Brooklyn, was a founding member of The Fugees with childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean – selling tens of millions of records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Grammy-winning rapper who “betrayed his country for money” has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. Prakazrel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-584037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115586001987277608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}