Fugees's Pras Michel Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison Following Foreign Conspiracy Conviction By Kimberlee Speakman

Fugees rapper Pras Michel has been sentenced after being found guilty in 2023 in a $100 million political conspiracy case.

Michel, 53, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in a Washington, D.C., court on Thursday, Nov. 20, Michel’s attorney confirmed to PEOPLE.

He will also receive three years of probation after his sentence is completed, a representative for Michel, Erica Dumas, told Entertainment Weekly. He is set to surrender to prison by Jan. 27, 2026.

The sentencing comes over two years after he was found guilty of charges of conspiracy, concealment of material facts, making false entries in records, witness tampering and serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign power related to an international conspiracy involving Malaysian businessman Jho Low, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the indictment, Low transferred $21.6 million to accounts belonging to Michel in 2012 “for the purpose of funneling significant sums of money into the United States presidential election” — which turned out to have been for former President Barack Obama’s campaign. He then paid approximately $865,000 from the money he received from the Malaysian businessman to different donors to contribute to Obama’s campaign. 

He was also convicted of attempting to influence President Donald Trump’s administration officials to drop an investigation into Malaysian businessman Jho Low, an international fugitive accused of embezzling money from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Justice Department eventually reached an agreement with Michel in June 2024 to return more than $100m (£79m) allegedly embezzled from Malaysia’s state-owned wealth fund — which was also used to finance films like The Wolf of Wall Street — according to BBC and EW.

The musician’s trial featured testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Prosecutors wrote that Michel “betrayed his country for money,” per ABC News and Billboard. They noted that the average sentence for others convicted of a similar-sized scheme had been 20 years and his sentence “should reflect the seriousness” of his offenses, per the outlets.

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“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,” prosecutors wrote, per ABC News.

However, Michel’s attorneys requested that the rapper only receive 36 months of prison time — something they described as a “just sentence in this case,” per Billboard.

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The rapper’s attorney, Peter Zeidenberg, told PEOPLE in a statement, “We believe the verdict was unsupported by the evidence and that the sentence is completely disproportional to the facts alleged, particularly when compared to his codefendants, all of whom were intimately involved in the same alleged scheme.”

“There simply is no justification for Mr. Michel being singled out like this except for the penalty for opting for trial. We will appeal,” he added.

Michel’s rep also weighed in on the verdict, telling EW: “Pras has spent his career breaking barriers and defying expectations. While today marks a difficult moment, it is not the end of his story or his legacy. He is profoundly grateful for the continued support of those who believe in him as he prepares for what lies ahead.”

Michel found stardom as a member of the Fugees, who are regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop groups of the 1990s. Their final album, “The Score,” released in 1996, was certified seven-times platinum by the RIAA.