‘Betrayed His Country’: Fugees Star Pras Gets 14 Years Over Obama Donation Plot | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in jail for a case during which he was convicted of illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in overseas contributions to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection marketing campaign.

Michel, 52, declined to handle the courtroom earlier than U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.

In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, together with conspiracy and performing 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 mentioned federal sentencing tips really useful a life sentence for Michel, whom they mentioned “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 mentioned his shopper’s 14-year sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will attraction his conviction and sentence, in line with his lawyer.

Zeidenberg had really useful a three-year jail sentence. A life sentence could be an “absurdly high” punishment for Michel provided that it’s sometimes reserved for lethal terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys mentioned in a courtroom 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 dad and mom immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti, was a founding member of the Fugees together with childhood mates Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. Their hip-hop band received two Grammy Awards and offered tens of hundreds of thousands of albums.

Michel obtained over $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho — also referred to as Jho Low — and steered a few of that cash by means of straw donors to Obama’s marketing campaign.

Michel additionally tried to finish a Justice Department investigation of Low, tampered with two witnesses and perjured himself at trial, prosecutors mentioned.

Low, who has lived in China, was one of many main financiers of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a film starring DiCaprio. Low is a fugitive however has maintained his innocence.

“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 choose rejected Michel’s request for a brand new trial primarily based partly on his protection lawyer’s use of a generative AI program throughout his closing of the trial’s arguments. The judges mentioned that and different trial errors didn’t quantity to a critical miscarriage of justice.