Inside the wild trial of Pras Michel who is accused of taking $100m to ... trends now
Jury selection began Monday in the explosive trial of musician-turned-political financier Pras Michel, who became embroiled in Malaysian businessman and Hollywood producer Jho Low's multi-billion-dollar scam.
Michel, who gained fame in the '90s with the hip hop group The Fugees, is charged with conspiracy, witness tampering, and failure to register as an agent of China. He faces decades of prison time if found guilty.
The fifty-year-old is accused of accepting $100million from Low, and using his funds in an attempt to influence the administrations of both President Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Those efforts included attempts to have the administrations drop investigations into Low and 'secure the return' of Chinese dissident Miles Guo to Beijing, court documents showed.
Low is accused of orchestrating one of the largest financial scams in history, which included turning the slush-fund budget of the Malaysian government into his personal cash piggybank, selling phony bonds through Goldman Sachs, and using the money to fund a celebrity-filled lifestyle and even fund the Leonard DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street.
The 41-year-old is believed to be hiding in China, so Michel is standing trial alone for his involvement in the scam. The proceedings are expected to begin in April.
Pras Michel faces decades in prison if he is found guilty of his alleged part in the scheme
Jho Low is accused of carrying out one of the largest financial scams in history
Michel told Rolling Stone he first met Low at a nightclub in New York City in 2006. Prosecutors allege Michel became involved in a two-part scheme orchestrated by Low, which he was charged for in 2019, court documents show.
The first involved a fundraising event for Obama during his 2012 presidential campaign. Michel allegedly reimbursed guests to attend the $40,000 apiece fundraising the dinner in an effort to curry favor with the president's administration, and then threatened them not to reveal where their funds came from, according to NPR.
Michel allegedly funneled a total of $1million of Low's funds into Obama's campaign, and did it though 20 donors to avoid detection. Those funds allegedly came directly from the cash Low stole from the Malaysian government.
The second plot involved Michel helping Low lobby officials in the Trump administration in an effort to end an investigation into Low's business dealings.
'The defendant, Prakazrel [Pras] Michel, received over $100 million from Jho Low, a foreign fugitive responsible for one of the largest embezzlement schemes in history,' prosecutors wrote in court filings.
'To use backchannel
