On November 20, 2025, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced Fugees rapper Prakazrel (“Pras”) Michel to 14 years in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Michel was previously convicted in April 2023 of one count of conspiracy to make illegal foreign contributions, one count of concealment of material facts, two counts of causing political committees to make false statements in Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) reports, two counts of witness tampering, one count of conspiracy to serve as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal and a foreign government in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), one count of aiding and abetting an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, one count of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, and one count of conspiring to make false statements to a bank. The sentencing follows the entry of a forfeiture order on October 30, 2025, which ordered Michel to forfeit nearly $65 million.
As stated in the superseding indictment, Michel and Low Taek Jho illegally funneled money from Low, a foreign national, towards political contributions in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election. Although not stated in the indictment, other filings in the case explain that the contributions were to benefit the Barack Obama campaign. The indictment further alleged that Michel and Low attempted to hide the illegal contributions by causing the filing of false FEC reports. The indictment also claimed that Michel, Low, and others ran an “illegal, back-channel lobbying campaign” to convince the U.S. government (1) to drop a separate investigation, and related forfeiture proceedings, into Low regarding his “embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (“1MDB”), a strategic investment and development company wholly owned by” the Malaysian government, and (2) to send a Chinese dissident back to China. The Court sentenced Michel to 14 years in connection with the witness tampering, false FEC reports, and acting as a unregistered foreign agent charges, and lesser sentences for the remaining offenses. All sentences are to run concurrently.
With respect to the forfeiture order, the court granted the government’s request for $64,923,226.40 in forfeiture in connection with the conspiracy to make false statements to a bank charge. This amount represents the $104.24 million in proceeds that Michel allegedly obtained from Low as a direct result of his role in the above-described scheme, less $39,316,773.63 already forfeited in related proceedings.
Docket – Minute Entries | Memorandum Opinion | Superseding Indictment