WASHINGTON — Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in jail for a case through which he was convicted of illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in international contributions to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection marketing campaign.
Michel, 52, declined to deal with the court docket earlier than U.S. District Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.
In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, together with conspiracy and performing as an unregistered agent of a international authorities. The trial in Washington, D.C., included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Lawyer Basic Jeff Periods.
Justice Division prosecutors stated federal sentencing pointers really useful a life sentence for Michel, whom they stated “betrayed his nation for cash” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to hold out his schemes.”
“His sentence ought to mirror the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the dangers to his nation, and the magnitude of his greed,” they wrote.
Protection legal professional Peter Zeidenberg stated his consumer’s 14-year sentence is “utterly disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will enchantment his conviction and sentence, in keeping with his lawyer.
Zeidenberg had really useful a three-year jail sentence. A life sentence could be an “absurdly excessive” punishment for Michel provided that it’s usually reserved for lethal terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys stated in a court docket submitting.
“The Authorities’s place is one that will trigger Inspector Javert to recoil and, if something, merely illustrates simply how simply the Pointers could be manipulated to supply absurd outcomes, and the way poorly geared up they’re, at the very least on this event, to find out a good and simply sentence,” they wrote.
