Ethan Miller
The federal criminal conspiracy trial of former Fugees member Pras (legal name Prakazrel Samuel Michel) has been pushed back from its original November 4 start date to March 27 of next year, Pitchfork reports. The delay is reportedly due to an unrelated injury sustained by one of Michel’s attorneys. The FADER has reached out to the attorney’s office, and to another representative of Michel, for independent confirmation.
In 2019, Michel pleaded not guilty in Washington, D.C. District Court to four charges: one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government, one count of a scheme to conceal material facts, and two counts of making a false entry in a record in connection with the conspiracy.
The case stems from Michel’s involvement with Low Taek Jho (aka Jho Low), a Hollywood party fixture and one-time advisor to former Malaysian president Najib Razak. Together, Low and Michel are accused of funneling federal funds to political campaigns and obstructing the investigation into their alleged crimes. Low is wanted internationally in connection with his country’s 1MDB scandal, in which he allegedly helped embezzle billions of dollars from the state-owned sovereign investment fund he and then-president Razak co-founded.
Federal prosecutors say Low gave Pras approximately $100 million over the years in an attempt to influence U.S. politics: In 2012, Pras allegedly used some of that money to illegally contribute to Political Action Committees (PACs) supporting Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. Later, the prosecutors claim, he used more of the funds in an attempt to pressure the Trump administration to terminate a Department of Justice investigation into Low’s activities. He is also accused of another attempt to sway Trump’s office, this time on behalf of the Chinese government, advocating for the extradition of a Chinese dissident from the States.
A list of 72 potential witnesses for the trial published Monday (October 10) by Politico includes former White House chief of staff John Kelly, former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, and former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger (all under Trump), as well as W. Bush-era Republican National Convention deputy finance chair Elliot Broidy, casino mogul Steve Wynn, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who is apparently tied to the trial by Low’s financial involvement in The Wolf of Wall Street.
