Grammy-Winning Fugees Rapper Pras Michel Reports to Federal Prison to Begin 14-Year Sentence for Illegally Funneling Millions in Foreign Money Into Obama’s 2012 Campaign

Grammy-winning Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel reported to a low-security federal prison in Arizona on Thursday to begin serving a 14-year sentence for his role in a campaign finance conspiracy that funneled millions of dollars in illegal foreign contributions into Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection.

Michel, 53, a founding member of the Fugees alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, surrendered at the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford.

The rapper’s legal team has said they will be continuing to pursue an appeal while he’s behind bars.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Michel in 2023 on 10 criminal counts after a five-week trial.

The charges included conspiracy to make illegal foreign contributions, concealment of material facts, causing false statements and entries in Federal Election Commission records, witness tampering, and multiple violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal.

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Michel received more than $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, a fugitive central to the massive 1MDB embezzlement scandal, and used approximately 20 straw donors to hide the foreign source and illegally contribute to Obama’s 2012 campaign.

Additionally, Michel participated in a back-channel lobbying effort to pressure the U.S. government to drop its investigation into Low.

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U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Michel in November to 14 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The court also ordered him to forfeit nearly $65 million.

At sentencing, Justice Department prosecutors told the judge that Michel “betrayed his country” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes,” arguing that federal sentencing guidelines supported a life term.

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