The musician was first hit with federal charges in 2019, implicating him in a criminal conspiracy with the disgraced Malaysian financier Jho Low.

Fugees rapper Pras Michel sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiracy and foreign lobbying conviction

The musician was first hit with federal charges in 2019, implicating him in a criminal conspiracy with the disgraced Malaysian financier Jho Low.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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November 20, 2025 6:43 p.m. ET

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Pras Michel outside of court in Washington, D.C., in 2023. Credit: Ting Shen/Bloomberg/Getty

- Fugees rapper Pras Michel has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for a 2023 conviction on charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

- Pras was first indicted with applying funds found to be stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth toward pressuring multiple U.S. presidents to drop the investigation against his co-conspirator, the Malaysian financier Jho Low, and extradite a Chinese dissident.

- Erica Dumas, a representative for Pras, told EW, "While today marks a difficult moment, it is not the end of his story or his legacy."**

Hip-hop legend and Fugees star Pras Michel is going to prison.

The musician received a 14-year sentence on Thursday following his 2023 conviction on charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Erica Dumas, a representative for Pras, noted to * *that her client has also been ordered to serve three years of probation following the completion of his sentence, and is set to surrender by Jan. 27, 2026. Dumas added that the judge in the case, D.C. federal court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, called Pras "well educated but very arrogant. I feel you have no remorse."

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"Pras has spent his career breaking barriers and defying expectations," Dumas stated. "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."**

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The 53-year-old musician, born Prakazrel Samuel Michel, caught his first wave of legal trouble in 2019. The four-count indictment unsealed that May alleged that in 2012, the disgraced Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, transferred $21.6 million to accounts belonging to Pras, directing him to covertly apply the money into presidential campaigns.

Pras did just that, funneling approximately $865,000 through straw donors into the campaign of a candidate later revealed as Barack Obama. That donation became the subject of a false report submitted to the Federal Election Commission by a presidential joint fundraising committee.**

Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel perform as the Fugees in New York City in 2023.

Nina Westervelt/Getty

After investigators began looking into that activity, but before the 2019 indictment, Pras and Low engaged in another criminal conspiracy to influence President Donald Trump and his Justice Department to drop the investigation into Low and his co-conspirators. That was the subject of a 2021 superseding indictment, which found the millions Low directed to Pras were stolen from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Pras was also accused of using this money to create a back-channel campaign to extradite the Chinese dissident Guo Wengui back to China from the United States. The musician was convicted by a federal grand jury in April 2023.

Michel and Low met in 2006. Their relationship led to Low helping finance films like *The Wolf of Wall Street*, which ended up dragging Leonardo DiCaprio into court to testify in the 2023 trial. It was revealed during that trial that Low's plundering of the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund exceeded $4 billion. Low's whereabouts have been unknown since 2016.**

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