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The Fugees member Pras Michel is now staring down a potential 15 to 19½–year federal prison sentence after a Washington, D.C. judge ruled against his bid for a lighter punishment in the sprawling foreign lobbying and campaign finance case tied to Malaysian financier Jho Low.
The ruling, issued Nov. 4 by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, sided with federal prosecutors on several major sentencing enhancements—finding that Michel not only laundered illicit funds and acted as an unregistered foreign agent, but also obstructed justice in the process. Those conclusions more than triple the sentencing range Michel’s legal team had pushed for, which was just five to six years.
Michel’s attorneys have long argued that the Grammy-winning artist was a “political novice manipulated by foreign billionaires,” but the judge wasn’t persuaded, writing that the defense narrative “understates the severity of the offenses.”
Pras was convicted in 2023 on 10 felony counts, including conspiracy, illegal foreign lobbying, witness tampering, and campaign finance violations. Prosecutors say he accepted tens of millions of dollars from Low—now a fugitive accused of looting Malaysia’s 1MDB fund—and used the money to influence U.S. politics during both the Obama and Trump eras.
While the ruling doesn’t lock in Michel’s sentence, it sets the parameters for the formal hearing later this year—one that could determine the hip-hop figure’s fate for nearly the next two decades. It also marks another milestone in the federal government’s effort to hold U.S. players accountable in the global 1MDB corruption scandal.
Michel, once part of one of hip-hop’s most celebrated groups, is now at the center of one of the most consequential white-collar cases to intersect with the music world. His final sentencing date has yet to be scheduled.
