Fugees' Pras sentenced to 14 years in prison

Fugees' Prakazrel Michel, better known by his stage name Pras, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for illegally funnelling money into former U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, according to Billboard.

On Thursday, the rapper was officially sentenced by Washington, D.C. federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy and illegal foreign lobbying in 2023. Michel will serve 14 out of the maximum 22 years, with three years probation.

Last month, he was ordered to pay nearly $65 million (about €56 million) to the U.S. government.

The artist was charged with campaign finance crimes in 2019 after being accused of funnelling money from Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho into Obama's 2012 U.S. presidential re-election campaign, in addition to attempting to influence U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration to end an investigation into Jho Low.

The case didn't go to trial until 2023, where Pras was found guilty of all 10 charges brought against him, including conspiracy to defraud the United States government and making foreign and conduit campaign contributions, one count of concealing material facts and two counts of making a false entry in a record in connection with the conspiracy.

He filed a motion for retrial, saying his attorney David Kenner used AI to write his closing argument. His new attorneys reportedly plan to appeal his sentence and criminal convictions.

Fugees, consisting of Pras, Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill, are a 1990s hip-hop group formed in New Jersey.

Their best selling album The Scored, which came out in 1996, earned the band two Grammy Awards, making them the first hip-hop group to ever be nominated for Album Of The Year. It featured the hit singles ‘Ready or Not’ and ‘Killing Me Softly’.

The band performed at Dublin’s 3Arena in October, 2024, following Pras' lawsuit against Hill after the cancellation of a planned Fugees tour in North America.