Ex-Fugees musician Prakazrel “Pras” Michel has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for using money to peddle influence in US politics.
US prosecutors had recommended a life sentence for the Grammy Award winner after he was found guilty in April 2023 of corruption and other charges, including acting as an unregistered foreign agent and witness tampering.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed down the sentence in a Washington DC court on Thursday. Michel, 53, testified in his own defence during his trial but declined to address the court on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
His attorney said the sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offence” and that he will appeal.
The musician, who was also found guilty of campaign finance violations and lying to banks, had been accused of bringing “secret, illegal, foreign influence to bear” between 2012 and 2017, spanning the time Barack Obama and Donald Trump were in the White House.
US prosecutors said Michel received more than $100m (£80m) from Malaysian billionaire Jho Low that was used in two efforts to influence US politics. He was also convicted of lobbying on behalf of China’s government.
According to court documents, prosecutors said Michel “betrayed his country for money” and for nearly a decade he “sought to exploit and deceive” various entities in the US government, including the White House and FBI, as well as his own co-conspirators.
“Michel lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes,” prosecutors said. “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 had recommended a life sentence, in line with federal guidelines.
The trial saw testimony from Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Businessman Mr Low, who funnelled money to Michel, was accused of stealing about $4bn from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund during the infamous 1MDB scandal.
The justice department reached an agreement with the fugitive financier in June 2024 to return more than $100m (£79m) allegedly embezzled from Malaysia’s state-owned wealth fund.
Michel was accused of helping to lobby officials in the first Trump administration to abandon their investigation into Mr Low’s part in it.
Michel’s defence attorney, Peter Zeidenberg, told the BBC he believed the verdict “was unsupported by the evidence” and the sentence “is completely disproportional to the facts alleged”, particularly when compared to Michel’s co-defendants in the case.
“There simply is no justification for Mr. Michel being singled out like this except for the penalty for opting for trial,” he said.
Michel’s co-defendant Elliott Broidy was pardoned, George Higginbotham received three months in probation and Nicki Lum Davis received 24 months, Mr Zeidenberg said.
He also noted that possible violations of Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) will no longer be prosecuted except where espionage is involved and that no espionage was alleged in Michel’s case.
Shortly after taking office this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum widely seen as narrowing the reach of Fara, which requires people who work in the US on behalf of foreign interests to regularly give the justice department information about those relationships and activities. The justice department would only prosecute “instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors”, she wrote.
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