A Fugee’s Legal Reunion

fugees singer Pras Michel
Fugees founding memeber Pras Michel’s legal odyssey revolves around his association with Jho Low and getting mixed up in illicitly funneling millions of the shady Malaysian social climber’s dollars into Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
January 15, 2024

Every great song deserves a remix, and legal proceedings are no different. Consider last year’s trial of Pras Michel, the founding member of the Fugees who now faces 20 years in prison after being convicted of participating in a conspiracy. Michel’s legal odyssey revolves around his association with Jho Low and getting mixed up in illicitly funneling millions of the shady Malaysian social climber’s dollars into Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Subsequently, Michel tried to convince the Trump-era Department of Justice to back off its pursuit of Low for raiding Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. Separately, Michel, prodded by Low, aided a scheme to have the Trump administration extradite Chinese dissident Guo Wengui to please China. Now, the pressing concern is whether the politically unsavvy Michel got a raw deal when he became one of the very, very few individuals in American history to be convicted of serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign power.