It’s not every day that a Grammy-winning rapper gets sent to prison for election fraud, but yesterday was one of those days. A rapper who was a founding member of the Fugees got sentenced to 14-years, partly for funneling millions in foreign money into Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. He was convicted in 2023 and yesterday received his sentence.
A founding member of the hip-hop group the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for his role in a foreign influence scheme that illegally funneled millions of dollars to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
The rapper Prakazrel Michel, known as Pras, orchestrated a sprawling international conspiracy in which he accepted $120 million from Low Taek Jho, a Malaysian financier who wanted to gain political influence in the United States, the Justice Department said. Mr. Michel distributed some of that money to a network of about 20 straw donors, who then donated it to the Obama campaign.
Prosecutors in this case were actually seeking a life sentence but Michel’s lawyers argued for three years and have since promised to appeal.
Defense attorney Peter Zeidenberg said his client’s 14-year sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will appeal his conviction and sentence, according to his lawyer.
Zeidenberg had recommended a three-year prison sentence. A life sentence would be an “absurdly high” punishment for Michel given that it is typically reserved for deadly terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys said in a court filing.
“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.
There’s some question about how good Michel’s lawyers really were. In 2023 he brought on new attorneys who demanded a retrial on the grounds that his former lawyer had used AI to draft his closing argument. The AI apparently botched it.
Michel’s new counsel from ArentFox Schiff said that the AI-generated closing argument by Michel’s previous lawyer, David Kenner, was a resounding flop: “Kenner’s closing argument made frivolous arguments, misapprehended the required elements, conflated the schemes and ignored critical weaknesses in the government’s case,” the brief said.
By using an experimental AI program to generate his closing argument, the brief said, Kenner botched “the single most important portion” of Michel’s jury trial…
“The AI program failed Kenner, and Kenner failed Michel,” the brief said. “The closing argument was deficient, unhelpful and a missed opportunity that prejudiced the defense.”…
The brief listed a litany of purported failures by Kenner, in addition to the alleged AI closing argument fiasco. Among the most serious is ArentFox’s accusation that Kenner, who is not an expert in complex white-collar cases or lobbying regulations, outsourced trial preparation to inexperienced contract attorneys at an e-discovery company co-founded by Israely, an old friend.
So Michel may not have had the best defense money can buy. His request for a new trial was denied last year. On the other hand the fact that his lawyer couldn’t get him an acquittal, with or without AI help, doesn’t mean the attorney is the main problem here. Here’s what the prosecutors, who did not use AI, had to say about Michel’s crimes in their sentencing argument.
Prakazrel Michel betrayed his country for money. He funneled millions of dollars in prohibited foreign contributions into a United States presidential election and attempted to manipulate a sitting president to serve a foreign criminal and a foreign power. Over nearly a decade, Michel’s conspiracies sought to exploit and deceive the White House, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, political committees, the Federal Election Commission, straw donors, FBI agents, multiple financial institutions, and his own co-conspirators. Michel lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.
Michel’s illicit foreign malign influence effort is extraordinary—he and his co-conspirators targeted the highest levels of American government through illegal contributions and backchannel influence. They tried to end the DOJ investigation into 1MDB, the largest foreign embezzlement scheme in history, and endeavored to send a PRC national back to China without due process. For his willingness to elevate foreign interests over those of the United States, Michel obtained more than $120 million from the architect of 1MDB, Low Taek Jho. After Michel was caught, he tampered with witnesses and then perjured himself at trial. 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.
Low Taek Jho is a billionaire who claimed he donated all the money to Obama’s campaign because he wanted a photo with the president. He is also the person who funded the film Wolf of Wall Street, which is why Leonardo DiCaprio was forced to testify at Michel’s trial.
Michel obtained over $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho — also known as Jho Low — and steered some of that money through straw donors to Obama’s campaign.
Michel also tried to end a Justice Department investigation of Low, tampered with two witnesses and perjured himself at trial, prosecutors said.
Low, who has lived in China, was one of the primary financiers of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a movie starring DiCaprio. Low is a fugitive but 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.
Low is believed to be living in Shanghai, meaning he’ll never be charged with anything. This may not be the end of the story for Michel since there is still an appeal, but it looks to me like he is probably going to prison for quite a few years.
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