Pras is officially seeking an overturn of his 14-year federal prison sentence for money laundering.
The Fugees rapper filed a Notice of Appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on Dec. 4, seeking to have his conviction and 168-month prison sentence thrown out.
Michel was found guilty in April 2023 on 10 counts, including conspiracy, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering, witness tampering, and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government after allegations Michel accepted more than $100 million from Malaysian financier Jho Low to influence U.S. politics and help shield Low from extradition to the United States.
Low remains a fugitive at large.
Federal prosecutors argued during the trial that Michel used foreign money and funneled it into Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and later attempted to curry favor with the Trump administration to end its probe into 1MDB, a company owned by Low, which was the subject of a multibillion-dollar fraud investigation. Authorities described the scheme, one of the largest global financial scandals in modern history, as a “covert back-channel lobbying campaign” which attempted to derail U.S. investigative efforts.
Pras was convicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a rare prosecution that requires individuals who represent foreign governments or their principals to register with the Department of Justice. Michel was also ordered to forefit $65 million.
His legal team argued that the rapper deserved probation, citing that he had been manipulated by Jho Low and had done public good through philanthropy. Ultimately, the court rejected the request.
Pras also alleged his attorneys used artificial intelligence to deliver his closing argument. In a brief filed demanding a new trial, Michel alleged his defense attorney “made frivolous arguments, misapprehended the required elements, conflated the schemes and ignored critical weaknesses in the government’s case.” It was one of the first cases to be determined as having utilized “generative AI” in a federal trial. He was again denied a new trial.
The lawyer in question, David Kennner, pleaded guilty to leaking court documents to reporters in relation to the case.
Now with his appeal in place, it could take months or even years before it is fully resolved.
