Fugees Rapper Sentenced to 14 Years Over Illegal Campaign Donation Scheme

Matt Vespa | November 22, 2025 6:00 AM

What a wild story, though it’s another tale about how the 2012 Obama campaign accepted illegal donations. Granted, this wasn’t a check or two here or there. This was a major operation in which millions were illegally funneled into it.

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, co-founder of the hip hop group The Fugees, has been at the center of this years’ long legal action for which he was found guilty in 2023. He was sentenced this week to 14 years in prison for this scheme. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and actor Leonardo DiCaprio testified during the trial (via NY Post):

The Brooklyn-born Grammy winner — who co-founded the hip hop group with singers Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean — stayed mum as U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed down the hefty sentence Thursday in Washington, DC.
Michel, 52, also received three years of probation and was ordered last month to forfeit $64 million linked to the federal crimes.
[…]
Michel ran an international scheme in which he took $120 million from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who wanted to gain political influence in the United States, the Justice Department said.
The rapper distributed some of that cash to roughly 20 straw donors, who then gave it to the Obama campaign.
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence, saying Michel “betrayed his country for money” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.”
“After Michel was caught, he tampered with witnesses and then perjured himself at trial,” the Justice Department said in court documents.
“His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed,” the prosecutors said.