Callum Jones
Grammy award-winning rapper Prakazrel 'Pras' Michel who 'betrayed the US for money' has been sentenced to 14 years behind bars.
Michel, from Brooklyn, made a name for himself by becoming a founding member of The Fugees with childhood pals Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean.
The group went on to sell tens of millions of records and Michel even picked up a Grammy as a result of his work.
However, the 53-year-old has been under investigation in recent years and has recently been convicted of illegally funnelling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, where the Democrat beat Republican Mitt Romney to the White House.
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It was back in April 2023 when a federal judge convicted Michel of ten counts, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and conspiracy.
The Justice Department were seeking a life sentence for the rapper, after they say he 'betrayed his country for money' and 'lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes'.
"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," the prosecutors said.
The defense, meanwhile, dubbed the sentence 'absurdly high', after the rapper declined to address the court before US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly dropped a 14-year sentence on him on Thursday (November 20).
Peter Zeidenberg, representing Michel, claimed the rapper should have received a three-year sentence and that his punishment was ultimately similar to what terrorists and drug cartel leaders would receive.
"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," Michel's attorneys wrote in a court filing.
Michel's request for a new trial was rejected by a judge last year after he claimed one of his lawyers had used AI during the closing arguments.
Low Taek Jho is one of those accused to have played a role in the money scandal, after claims billions of dollars had been taken from a Malaysian state fund.
The fugitive has long maintained his innocence and insisted he had nothing to do with the case.
His lawyers state: "Low's motivation for giving 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."