Michel, 53, a founding member of the Fugees alongside Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, surrendered at the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford.

Pras Michel turns himself in to begin serving his 14-year federal prison sentence after being convicted in 2023 on charges including conspiracy, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The Fugees co-founder’s fall from grace is one of the most shocking…pic.twitter.com/jWamZE362y

— Famease (@Fameasemedia)May 1, 2026

The rapper’s legal team has said they will be continuing to pursue an appeal while he’s behind bars.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Michel in 2023 on 10 criminal counts after a five-week trial.

The charges included conspiracy to make illegal foreign contributions, concealment of material facts, causing false statements and entries in Federal Election Commission records, witness tampering, and multiple violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal.

Michel received more than $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, a fugitive central to the massive 1MDB embezzlement scandal, and used approximately 20 straw donors to hide the foreign source and illegally contribute to Obama’s 2012 campaign.

Additionally, Michel participated in a back-channel lobbying effort to pressure the U.S. government to drop its investigation into Low.

Michel also conspired with Low to orchestrate and conceal a foreign and conduit contribution scheme in which they funneled millions of dollars of Low’s money into the 2012 U.S. presidential election as purportedly legitimate campaign contributions, all while concealing the true source of the money. Michel received Low’s money and contributed it both personally and through approximately 20 straw donors. Michel also caused a presidential joint fundraising committee and an independent expenditure committee to submit false reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In addition, Michel personally submitted a false declaration to the FEC, conspired to commit money laundering and make false statements to financial institutions related to the foreign influence campaigns, and attempted to cause witnesses to make false statements to and withhold information from law enforcement officials about the scheme.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Michel in November to 14 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Source: The Gateway Pundit