The ongoing probe into Pras Michel has taken a turn, and it now involves the Trump administration. The Fugees icon was hit with major legal troubles years ago when he was accused of helping Jho Low, a Malaysian financier, funnel millions of dollars into the United States to help former President Barack Obama’s campaign. The funds were said to have been just a portion of the billions of dollars that Low alleged conspired to embezzle from 1Malaysia Development Berhard, a company owned by the government of Malaysia.
Pras has denied wrongdoing in this federal case but CNBC reports that the rapper, along with Low, has been hit with new charges. The men have reportedly been accused “of running a back-channel campaign to get the Trump administration to drop an investigation of Low and the 1MDB investment company and to have a Chinese dissident returned to China.”
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While Pras’s location is known by the government, Low has been M.I.A. The fugitive is on the run from authorities, although he’s believed to be in China, and investigators believe that both Low and Pras may have schemed to get themselves off the hook with the help of former President Donald Trump.
The indictment issued Thursday by a grand jury in Washington accuses Low and Michel of conspiring with Broidy, a woman named Nickie Lum Davis and others “to engage in undisclosed lobbying campaigns at the direction of Low and the Vice Minister of Public Security for the People’s Republic of China, respectively,” according to the Justice Department.
Pras and Low are now also facing money laundering conspiracy charges while Pras was also tacked with “witness tampering and conspiracy to make false statements.” Check out Pras discussing his case back in 2019 below.
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