Rapper Pras Michel Convicted in Conspiracies to Influence US Government

Pras Michel, a member of the 1990's hip-hop group the Fugees, arrives at U.S. District Court in Washington, on March 31, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a member of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees, has been found guilty by a jury of 10 counts of crimes related to his alleged participation in conspiracies, including to help China influence the United States.

The 50-year-old Grammy Award-winning rapper was convicted on April 26 of conspiring with a Malaysian financier, Jho Low—also known as Low Taek Jho—to carry out foreign lobbying campaigns to influence the U.S. government under the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

The 10 counts include conspiracy, concealment of material facts, falsifying campaign finance records, witness tampering, and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Michel faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the top counts. The judge has yet to set a sentencing date.

Influence Schemes

The Fugees won two Grammy Awards for their best-selling 1996 album “The Score.”

Prosecutors said that by 2012, Michel needed money and found it through Low, who was known to pay celebrities large sums of money.

Jynwel Capital Limited CEO Jho Low attends the 2014 Social Good Summit at 92Y on Sept. 21, 2014 in New York City. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

The defense acknowledged that Michel wanted to make money but argued that he had received bad legal advice as he reinvented himself in the world of politics.

Prosecutors accused Michel of having sought to convince the Justice Department under the Trump administration to drop civil and criminal investigations into Low over the 1MDB embezzlement scandal. The effort was carried out with Low, Elliott Broidy, Nickie Lum Davis, George Higginbotham, and others.

Broidy, Higginbotham, and Lum Davis have all since pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.

Low faces separate charges in New York that he and his family embezzled more than $4.5 billion from Malaysian’s state-owned investment fund 1MDB from 2009 to 2015. He remains at large.

Equanimity, the $250 million luxury yacht that fugitive Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho allegedly bought with funds embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, in Selangors, Malaysia, on Aug. 8, 2018. (Ore Huiying/Getty Images)

Prosecutors said Michel was also paid to try to persuade the U.S. government to extradite a Chinese national back to China, at the direction of China’s vice minister of public security. Prosecutors pointed out that Michel didn’t register as a foreign agent. The Chinese national, who is suspected of having committed crimes in China, is billionaire and dissident Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Guo.

Guo was never extradited but was arrested by U.S. prosecutors over unrelated fraud charges in March.

Michel was also accused of having agreed to funnel some $20 million from Low into Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, in exchange for receiving millions of dollars. Michel contributed to Obama’s campaign both personally and through about 20 straw donors.

The prosecutors said that in doing so, Michel hid that the funds were from overseas. Federal election law prohibits foreigners from donating to U.S. campaigns.

Rapper Testified in Own Defense

On the witness stand, Michel said Low wanted to take a photo with Obama and paid Michel about $20 million over the course of nine months to help him get it. Michel said that although he used some of the money to pay for three of his friends to attend two political fundraisers for Obama’s 2012 campaign, he didn’t do so at Low’s direction, and no one told him that was illegal.

“Once he gave me the money, it was my discretion how I spent the money because it’s my money,” Michel told the jury, calling the money he received “free money.”

Regarding the charges related to Guo’s extradition, Michel told the jury that he had failed to register himself as a foreign agent because his attorney, Higginbotham, never told him it was required by law. Michel testified that he did pass along information to the FBI about China wanting to extradite Guo. Michel said he “thought it was something the FBI should know” that China was concerned Guo was “allegedly a criminal rapist.”

Higginbotham has since pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme. He told jurors that at Michel’s insistence, he met with the Chinese ambassador in Washington to tell the ambassador that the Trump administration was working toward extraditing Guo.

“As proven at trial, the defendant [Michel] engaged in an extensive conspiracy to use millions of dollars in foreign funds to engage in illegal back-channel lobbying and make unlawful campaign contributions,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement.

“Today’s verdict demonstrates that anyone who engages in unlawful foreign-sponsored efforts to influence American officials, our elections, or the criminal justice system will be brought to justice.”

Michel’s lawyer, David Kenner, told reporters outside the courthouse on April 26 that he was “extremely disappointed” by the verdict but remains hopeful the charges could be dismissed by the judge.

“I remain enormously confident that this case is not over, and that we will ultimately prevail,” he added.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly set deadlines for both parties to file briefs on a number of post-trial motions, including a request for a judgment of acquittal, that extend into July.

Reuters contributed to this report.