A federal court has sentenced Fugees rapper Pras to 14 years over a multimillion-dollar political scheme involving President Barack Obama reelection campaign donations, reports say.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Prakazrel Michel, better known as Pras, to 14 years in prison followed by three years of probation, according to Billboard and The New York Times. He was also ordered last month to forfeit $64 million apparently linked to the scheme, Billboard reported.
Michel, 53 – co-founder of the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning hip hop group with bandmates Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean – was found guilty of 10 counts of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government in April 2023. He was facing up to 20 years in federal prison for two longstanding criminal schemes: one funneling tens of millions from foreign financier Low Taek Jho to Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, and another attempting to lobby the U.S. Department of Justice to drop its investigation into Low and send a high-profile Chinese "dissident" back to China under the Trump administration.
USA TODAY has reached out to Pras' rep for comment.
Fugees co-founder Pras Michel charged with Obama campaign donation violations
