Haitian-American rapper Pras Michel was raised outside of Newark, Recent Jersey, rose to fame with The Fugees and located success as a solo artist with “Ghetto Supastar”.
But in some way he also acquired a mysterious international man.
On Monday, 50-year-old Grammy Award winner Pras will stand trial in a federal court in Washington, D.C. as a key figure in a posh, multi-billion dollar global financial and political influence plot involving two foreign nationals: Jho Low, a flashy Malaysian billionaire with ties to China, and Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire who recently had a fireplace in his Manhattan apartment during an FBI raid.
The press subpoenaed Presidents Obama and Trump, former Recent Jersey governor Chris Christie and others involved in the case, but U.S. Supreme Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly overturned the subpoenas last week.
The rapper faces as much as 22 years in prison if convicted on charges including conspiracy to defraud the US government.
Pras presented a star-studded list of witnesses that included former HUD executive Ben Carson, Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Federal prosecutors say Pras received about $100 million from Low to influence American politics.
Low, named “The Asian Great Gatsbyis on trial with the Press, but went to the lam after allegedly siphoning $4.4 billion from Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund he named the fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and went on a spending spree, each to impress celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Miranda Kerr and Kim Kardashian, and to launder funds.
Low is believed to live together with his family in China.
Pras and Low first met at the PM nightclub in the Meatpacking District in 2006. in line with Rolling Stone.
They remained in contact and in 2012, around the time Pras was invited by Frank White Jr., Obama’s fundraiser, to dinner with Obama for $40,000 per person, Low decided he desired to attend.
In response to the indictment, Low wired Pras $1 million to cover the expenses of Pras and his friends at the event.
All told, Low allegedly sent $21 million in funds he had defrauded from Malaysia to The Press and his financial adviser. Pras, in turn, allegedly donated $1.1 million of that cash, using his own name, to the Obama campaign and gave out one other $865,000 to about 20 straw donors.
Pras, who’s accused of being an unregistered foreign agent, is accused of helping Low, who financed DiCaprio’s blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street, in an try and win favor with the Obama and Trump administrations.
Each Pras and Low are accused of illegally donating thousands and thousands of dollars to Obama’s 2012 campaign.
Each are also accused of illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation into Low’s activities with 1MDB, and Pras is accused of illegally lobbying Trump to extradite Guo, an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party.
Amongst the many strange claims on this case, there’s one in which the rapper is accused contacted Mother Jones in November 2017 suggest the magazine write an article about how the U.S. government refused to comply with China’s request to extradite Guo.
“The query is why the FBI is protecting Guo Wengui, a Chinese illegal immigrant who lied on a U.S. visa application to enter the U.S., is needed for rape, kidnapping, and a string of million-dollar civil lawsuits, and has an Interpol Red List for his arrest ? Pras wrote in a note he sent from a private email account through an intermediary, Jones’s mother reported.
The plot of the vast, complex saga escalated even further on March 15, just 10 days before Michel’s trial was scheduled to start, when Guo was arrested by the FBI in his $65 million Manhattan suite at the palatial Sherry-Netherland Hotel overlooking Central Park.
Federal officials said Ho Wan Kwok, also generally known as Guo Wengui and Miles Guo, allegedly defrauded hundreds of online followers from investments and spent the ill-gotten money on wealthy assets, including a $36,000 mattress, a $26 Recent Jersey mansion USD .5 million and USD 37 million yacht.
Then it got even weirder.
A hearth broke out in an 18th-floor apartment while FBI agents were still searching it – and authorities say the entire house was wired to record visitors’ audio and imagine the fire in the wood-paneled library was began remotely.
Prasa’s attorney asked for a trial delay last week due to Guo’s arrest, but was denied by Judge Kollar-Kotelly. The defense team tried to argue that prosecutors must provide them with a “treasure trove” of detention documents.
In 2019, when the feds first hit Pras with 4 criminal charges for illegally contributing to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, they offered him a plea deal.
In exchange for a guilty plea, they’d return a small amount of the $74 million they seized from his bank accounts in 2018, but Pras turned down the offer.
Adam Waldman, a controversial Washington DC lawyer who once represented Johnny Depp in his divorce from Amber Heard, tweeted about what he felt was insufficient press coverage of the rapper.
“In 11 days, a hip-hop star will stand trial with a fugitive Chinese spy. Two US presidents, two US national security advisers, the White House chief of staff, two presidential campaign fundraisers and Leonardo DiCaprio were called as witnesses (*27*)Waldman tweeted last week. “Nevertheless, the dystopian media won’t cover it.”
The 2 major media outlets, Bloomberg and Rolling Stone, covered this quite recently in two glamorous, largely likable Pras profiles made together with his collaboration.
Each profiles portrayed Pras partly as an altruist who stood in his way in what became an 11-year international scandal.
“I used to think that moving into politics was a approach to help people,” Pras told Rolling Stone. “When you concentrate on it, why the hell do I actually must be in politics?
“There isn’t a reason – my life is great – if not attempting to help people.”
The Press defense team can be expected to portray him as the more ignorant and naive saga guy – while prosecutors view him more as a significant player, sources say The Post.
They’re likely planning to hit him with a triple blow in the type of filling Obama’s campaign coffers with dirty money, counting on Trump to hush up the Low and 1MDB scandal – and being the spokesperson for Chinese power in Washington.
As Rolling Stone puts it, “He faces a high indictment that, putting aside specific allegations for the moment, is a component of a decade-long investigation that involves two of the last three presidential administrations, Leonardo DiCaprio, Goldman Sachs, the casino mogul. Steve Wynn, (Obama fundraiser) Frank White Jr., plus a lame Rat Pack reboot – Oceans 14: Mar-a-Lago! —a crazy crew of scheming political donors and would-be agents who caught their eye, broke some laws (knowingly or not), and have since succumbed to government pressure and agreed to testify against the Press, apparently to save lots of their very own skins.
Born Prakazrel Samuel Michel, the rapper grew up in a strict family in Irvington, Recent Jersey.
He and two other Fugees, Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill, attended Columbia High School in Maplewood. In 1996, he won two Grammy Awards with the group, for Best R&B Performance (“Killing Me Softly”) and Best Rap Album (“The Rating”).
“The Rating” went double platinum.
In 1998, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group with Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Mya for “Ghetto Supastar” from his debut solo album.
The press has long been occupied with problems with social justice. In 2006, he released the documentary “Skid Row, Los Angeles” in which he went into hiding as a homeless man with a hidden camera.
In 2013, he became a “major initial donor” to Organizing for Motion, a political advocacy group formed by Obama associates.
The rapper declined to talk to The Recent York Post, which unsuccessfully sued in 2016 for defamation, for this story.
In a $30 million lawsuit, he claimed he didn’t perform as expected as a headliner at a 9/11 charity event for a foundation he was allegedly affiliated with.
He claimed he was not affiliated with the foundation and was not scheduled to perform at the event, but the lawsuit was dismissed.
Pras’ criminal lawyer, David Kenner, only told The Post that he “looks forward to hearing this case and the opportunity to present our defense theory to the jury.