{"id":8392,"date":"2025-11-01T10:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/pras-michel-must-pay-64-million-after-illegal-lobbying-convictions\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T10:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:41:13","slug":"pras-michel-must-pay-64-million-after-illegal-lobbying-convictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/pras-michel-must-pay-64-million-after-illegal-lobbying-convictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pras Michel Must Pay $64 Million After Illegal Lobbying Convictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tFugees rapper Pras Michel must pay a whopping $64 million to the government following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges, a federal judge ruled Thursday (Oct. 30).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rapper\u2019s lawyers had called such a massive order \u201cgrossly disproportionate\u201d to his 2023 conviction, in which Michel was found guilty on accusations that he orchestrated a \u201cforeign influence campaign\u201d to get the U.S. to drop an investigation into fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low.<\/p>\n

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\n\tBut in the ruling on Thursday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said that Michel had \u201cobtained proceeds in the amount of at least $64,923,226 from his offenses,\u201d which included conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as an agent of China.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichel faces sentencing on those same convictions next month, when he could receive a decades-long prison sentence. His attorneys have called for a far lighter sentence of only 36 months.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Billboard<\/em>, Michel\u2019s spokeswoman Erica Dumas said: \u201cThey already took 100 [million] from him and now they want another 64 [million].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tComposed of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Michel, the Fugees rose to fame in the 1990s with hits like \u201cKilling Me Softly,\u201d \u201cReady or Not\u201d and \u201cFu-Gee-La.\u201d After splitting up in 1998, the three each had successful solo careers and mostly stayed separate until recent years, when they\u2019ve attempted multiple reunion tours.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn 2019, Michel was hit with sweeping federal criminal charges over accusations that he funneled money from Low, the mastermind of the billion-dollar 1MDB embezzlement scheme, to a lobbying campaign aimed at getting the first Trump administration to drop its investigation into the disgraced financier. He was also accused of secretly funneling Low\u2019s money to Barack Obama\u2019s 2012 presidential campaign, and of later trying to influence an extradition case on behalf of China.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn April 2023, following a trial that included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Michel was convicted on 10 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

\n\tThursday\u2019s forfeiture order was delayed by several months after Pras announced in August that he\u2019d had emergency surgery for colon cancer removal. The August hearing was eventually rescheduled for last week, setting the stage for Thursday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing his sentencing next month, Michel will likely appeal both his sentence and the underlying convictions to a higher court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fugees rapper Pras Michel must pay a whopping $64 million to the government following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges, a federal judge ruled Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[330,1279,6976,3647,1159,510,3646],"class_list":["post-8392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-convictions","tag-illegal","tag-lobbying","tag-michel","tag-million","tag-pay","tag-pras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}