Fugees' Pras Michel turns himself in to authorities to begin 14-year prison sentence

Fugees' Pras Michel has turned himself in to authorities in Arizona to begin his 14-year prison sentence after being convicted of money laundering and illegal lobbying in 2023.

As reported Rolling Stone, Michel plans to appeal his conviction as he serves time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona; the musician's sentence was originally due to begin in January, however a judge then delayed it until March offering him an additional 30 days to hand himself in, meaning the official start date was April 30.

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Michel was found guilty of 10 charges in November 2023, including money laundering, conspiracy, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and more.

Prosecutors said Michel had accepted $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho and funnelled it to former US President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.

According to AP, Michel was also found to have attempted to end a US Justice Department investigation into Jho and "tampered two witnesses" to the scheme. The founding Fugees' member was handed a 17-year jail sentence plus four years probation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

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"Pras honours the legal process as he reports to begin his sentence," Michel's spokesperson Erica Dumas said in a statement to Rolling Stone. "The FARA-related charges that led to his conviction are being vigorously contested on appeal, and his legal team believes the record will show that his rights were violated and the truth was obscured. This chapter is difficult but it is not his final one.”

[Via: AP]

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