Hip-Hop Star Pras Michel Found Guilty for Role in Malaysian Corruption Scandal and Illegal Influence Campaign

Hip-hop star Pras Michel, a former member of The Fugees, was found guilty in Washington on Wednesday for his role in an illegal influence campaign by a Malaysian financier at the heart of a massive corruption scandal.

The 50-year-old Haitian-American artist was found guilty of all the charges for which he was prosecuted, after a media trial lasting several weeks which notably saw actor Leonardo DiCaprio parade for bear witness.

Pras “Michel played a central role in a vast plot to influence senior government officials,” said Harry Lidsk, a representative of the Ministry of Justice.

A network whose brain is in Malaysia

Between 2012 and 2017, the hip-hop star would have received some 100 million dollars from the Malaysian Low Taek Jho, considered the mastermind of the scandal of the Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB.

According to the American authorities, this large sum would have been used in part for contributions to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2012. Since donations from abroad are prohibited in the United States, they would have been made through nominees and offshore companies.

Pras Michel was notably found guilty of conspiracy, forgery and use of forgery and of having served as a concealed agent of a foreign government, offenses for which he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, indicated the ministry of US Justice in a statement.

The artist was also found guilty of having carried out in 2017 illicit lobbying for the benefit of China with the administration of Donald Trump to demand the repatriation of a Chinese dissident, billionaire Guo Wengui.

Accused of defrauding thousands of investors to enrich himself, Guo Wengui was arrested in March in New York for financial fraud.

Leonardo DiCaprio at the helm

Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian businessman at the heart of this vast scandal, was indicted in 2018 for corruption and money laundering linked to the looting of the 1MDB fund, supposed to contribute to the economic development of Malaysia. On the run, he is now probably in China.

The financier is notably accused, alongside other people, of having used the money from this fund to buy luxury residences, yachts or even works of art and to surround himself with music stars, cinema, in particular by financing the film The wolf of Wall Streeta feature film released in 2013 that won an Oscar for Leonardo DiCaprio.

The actor recounted during the trial to the jurors the decadent parties financed by Low Taek Jho and said he remembered the latter assuring “that he wanted to make a significant donation to the Democratic Party”, evoking “20 to 30 million dollars . I said ‘wow, that’s a lot of money’…”