TAKING THE RAP

’90s Rapper Hit With 14-Year Sentence for Campaign Finance Crimes

Musician funneled money from Asia in bid to influence politics in D.C.

A Grammy-winning rapper who took more than $100 million from a billionaire Asian businessman and used it to try to wield influence in American politics has been jailed. Prosecutors had recommended a life sentence for 53-year-old Pras Michel, one of the founding members of the Fugees. Instead, in a much-delayed sentencing hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed down a 14-year term, which Michel’s lawyer said would be appealed as “completely disproportional to the facts alleged.” Michel had been accused of taking millions from Malaysian Low Taek Jho and injecting the funds into Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. He also tried to lobby Donald Trump’s first administration on behalf of the businessman. Both men were indicted in 2019. Michel was convicted on 10 counts, including campaign finance violations, in federal court in Washington, D.C., in 2023. Among those to testify in the trial was Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, whose 2023 film The Wolf of Wall Street was partly financed by the rapper.