Pras was convicted of conspiring against the United States government as part of a multimillion-dollar foreign influence scheme.
After a month-long trial, a jury convicted the former Fugees rapper on all ten criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, and failing to register his lobbying work on behalf of a foreign national.
Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was accused of illegally funneling more than $20 million from now-fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, to donors to support Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and later to lobby the Trump administration illegally.
“Mr. Michel is at the center of the conspiracy, he’s core, he’s the linchpin,” prosecutor Sean Mulryne told the jury during closing arguments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Jho Low is accused of masterminding a scheme to steal over $4.5 billion from the Malaysian investment fund 1MDB.
Pras, who met Low in a Manhattan nightclub in 2006, testified that he was paid $20 million in 2012 for a photo opportunity with Obama. Prosecutors claimed Pras funneled more than $800,000 of that money to Obama’s campaign via a series of straw donors.
Pras claimed that he never spent the money at Low’s direction and saw it as his money to spend as he pleased. He blames his participation in the schemes on bad advice from a hired attorney, a “stupid” decision that he now regrets.
According to Pras’ lawyer, the Grammy-winning rapper is “extremely disappointed” with the verdict and intends to appeal. “This is not over,” David Kenner said. “I am still very confident that we will win in the end.”
Prosecutors also called Leonardo DiCaprio to testify during the trial about his business relationship with Low, who helped fund his 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Pras faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Low is still on the run on a global scale.
