Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for a case in which he was convicted of illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in overseas contributions to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
Michel, 52, declined to deal with the court docket earlier than US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.
In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, together with conspiracy and appearing as an unregistered agent of a overseas authorities. The trial in Washington, D.C., included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Justice Department prosecutors stated federal sentencing tips advisable a life sentence for Michel, whom they stated “betrayed his country for money” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.”
“His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed,” they wrote.
Defense lawyer Peter Zeidenberg stated his consumer’s 14-year sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will enchantment his conviction and sentence, in accordance to his lawyer.
Zeidenberg had advisable a three-year prison sentence. A life sentence could be an “absurdly high” punishment for Michel on condition that it’s sometimes reserved for lethal terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys stated in a court docket submitting.
“The Government’s position is one that would cause Inspector Javert to recoil and, if anything, simply illustrates just how easily the Guidelines can be manipulated to produce absurd results, and how poorly equipped they are, at least on this occasion, to determine a fair and just sentence,” they wrote.
Michel, a Brooklyn native whose mother and father immigrated to the US from Haiti, was a founding member of the Fugees together with childhood buddies Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. Their hip-hop band gained two Grammy Awards and bought tens of hundreds of thousands of albums.
Michel obtained over $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho – often known as Jho Low – and steered a few of that cash via straw donors to Obama’s campaign.
Michel additionally tried to finish a Justice Department investigation of Low, tampered with two witnesses and perjured himself at trial, prosecutors stated.
Low, who has lived in China, was one of many major financiers of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a film starring DiCaprio. Low is a fugitive however has maintained his innocence.
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“Low’s motivation for giving Mr. Michel money to donate was not so that he could achieve some policy objective. Instead, Low simply wanted to obtain a photograph with himself and then-President Obama,” Michel’s attorneys wrote.
In August 2024, the decide rejected Michel’s request for a brand new trial based mostly in half on his protection lawyer’s use of a generative AI program throughout his closing of the trial’s arguments. The judges stated that and different trial errors didn’t quantity to a critical miscarriage of justice.