KUALA LUMPUR – US prosecutors have accused Grammy winner Pras Michel of taking US$100 million (RM444 million) from fugitive Low Taek Jho to attempt to get the then Donald Trump administration to drop investigations into the embezzlement of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds.
The federal court in Washington was also told that Michel was an agent of the Chinese government and took the money to lobby for the extradition of billionaire dissident Guo Wengui from the United States, reported Bloomberg.
Prosecutor Sean Mulryne added in his closing arguments that the case on 50–year-old Michel is about “foreign influence, foreign money, greed”, and that the hip-hop star kept more than US$70 million for his back-channelling efforts.
He also alleged that Michel lied to banks about the source and purpose of millions of dollars he received from Low and that a Morgan Stanley banker testified that Michel told him the money was from an investor on a boat in Asia.
Other “plotters” in the secret lobby included former Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy, former Justice Department attorney George Higginbotham, and Nickie Lum Davis, a Hawaiian businessman. All three pleaded guilty but Trump pardoned Broidy.
Higginbotham and Broidy turned government witnesses.
Michel is on trial on 12 charges linked to illegal contributions to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. The 50-year-old Haitian-American allegedly channelled a chunk of RM440 million given to him by Low into Obama’s campaign, concealing the source of the funds via shell companies.
He is also charged with witness tampering, conspiring to serve as an unregistered foreign agent and money laundering.
Michel is also charged for funnelling US$2 million from Low into Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign as well as pocketing at least US$18 million.
Earlier this week, Michel told the court that he did not act on behalf of China and claimed ignorance about having to notify the US under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
He added that the US$100 million he got was not directly from Low but as an investment for entertainment projects.
Michel’s lawyer David Kenner told the court that Low wanted a photo with Obama, and the case is not about the rapper’s attempt to influence the US government.
Previously, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who was one of the witnesses in Michel’s trial, had told the court that his legal team had done a background check on Low when the latter expressed interest in funding the film The Wolf of Wall Street.
DiCaprio said he was “given the green light” by his lawyers, as well as the studios, to accept the funding.
The actor said Low was seen as a “legitimate businessperson”, and also accepted gifts for his environmental foundation from the Penang-born businessman. – The Vibes, April 21, 2023
