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Grammy Award-winning rapper Prakazrel (Pras) Michel of the Fugees was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison in a case in which he was found guilty of illegally funneling millions of dollars in foreign donations to U.S. President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.
Michel, 52, declined to speak in court before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.
In April 2023 Federal jury found Michel guilty on 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The trial in Washington, D.C. included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Justice Department prosecutors said federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life sentence for Michel, who they said “betrayed his country for money” and “lyed unapologetically and ruthlessly to further his agenda.”
“His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country and the extent of his greed,” they wrote.
“Totally disproportionate”
Defense lawyer Peter Seidenberg said his client's 14-year sentence was “completely disproportionate to the crime”.
Michel will appeal his conviction and sentence, his lawyer said.
Seidenberg recommended a sentence of three years in prison. A life sentence would be an “absurdly high” sentence for Michel, given that it is typically reserved for deadly terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel's lawyers said in a court document.
“The government's position … simply illustrates how easily the Guidelines can be manipulated to produce absurd results and how ill-equipped they are, at least in this case, to render a fair and just verdict,” they wrote.
Michel, a Brooklyn native whose parents immigrated to the United States from Haiti, was a founding member of the Fugees along with childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. Their hip hop group won two Grammy Awards and sold tens of millions of albums.
Michel received more than US$120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, and funneled some of the money through straw donors to the Obama campaign.
Michel also tried to end the Justice Department's investigation of Lowe by manipulating two witnesses and perjuring himself at trial, prosecutors said.
Low, who lived in China, was one of the main financiers The Wolf of Wall Streetfilm starring DiCaprio. Lowe is a fugitive but maintains his innocence.
“Low's motivation for giving Mr. Michel the money to donate was not so that he could achieve any political goal. Instead, Lowe simply wanted to take a photo with himself and then-President Obama,” Michel's lawyers wrote.
In August 2024, Judge denied Michel's request for a new trial based in part on his lawyer's use of a generative artificial intelligence program during closing arguments.
The judge said this and other mistrials did not constitute a serious miscarriage of justice.
