Pras Charged In $21M Obama Campaign Finance Case; Sentenced To 14 Years in Prison

guess it wasnt a clean getaway like Alec Baldwin

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Pras submitted a star-studded witness list that included ex-HUD director Ben Carson, Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn and former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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Federal prosecutors allege Pras received approximately $100 million from Low to influence American politics. Low, dubbed the “Asian Great Gatsby,” is on trial with Pras but has gone on the lam after allegedly siphoning $4.4 billion from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund (1MDB) and going on a wild spending spree — both to impress celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Miranda Kerr and Kim Kardashian and to launder the funds.
Low is believed to be living with his family in China.
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Pras and Low first met at the PM nightclub in the meatpacking district in 2006, according to Rolling Stone.
They stayed in touch and in 2012, at around the time Pras was invited by Frank White Jr., an Obama fund-raiser, to a $40,000-per-person dinner with Obama, Low decided he wanted in.
According to the indictment, Low wired Pras $1 million to cover Pras and his friends at the event.

All in all, Low allegedly sent $21 million of the funds he scammed from Malaysia to Pras and his financial adviser. Pras, in turn, allegedly donated $1.1 million of the money, using his own name, to the Obama campaign and distributed another $865,000 to about 20 straw donors.
Pras, who’s accused of being an unregistered foreign agent, is charged with helping Low, who financed DiCaprio’s hit movie “Wolf of Wall Street,” attempt to curry favor with the Obama and Trump administrations.
Both Pras and Low are charged with illegally funneling millions of dollars in contributions to Obama’s 2012 campaign.
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The two are also accused of illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation of Low’s activities with 1MDB, and Pras is charged with illegally lobbying Trump to extradite Guo, an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party.

Among the many strange claims in the case is one alleging that the rapper reached out to Mother Jones in November 2017 to suggest the magazine do an article on how the US government refused to grant China’s request to extradite Guo.

“The question is why is the FBI protecting Guo Wengui — a Chinese illegal immigrant who lied on his US visa application for entry to the USA, is wanted for rape, kidnapping and a number of civil lawsuits in the millions of dollars, and has an Interpol red notice warrant out for his arrest?” Pras wrote in the memo, which he sent from a personal email account via an intermediary, Mother Jones reported.

The plot of the sprawling, complex saga thickened even more on March 15, just 10 days before Michel’s trial was scheduled to start when Guo was arrested by the FBI at his $65 million Manhattan apartment at the palatial Sherry-Netherland Hotel overlooking Central Park.
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Federal officials said that Ho Wan Kwok, aka Guo Wengui and Miles Guo, allegedly duped thousands of online followers out of investments and spent the ill-gotten cash on lavish assets, including a $36,000 mattress, a $26.5 million New Jersey mansion and a $37 million yacht.

Then it got even weirder.

A fire broke out in the 18th-floor apartment while FBI agents were still searching it — and authorities say the entire home was wired to record audio of visitors and that they believe the fire in the wood-paneled library was started remotely.
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In 2019, when the feds first hit Pras with an indictment on four criminal counts for illegal contributions to the 2012 Obama reelection campaign, they offered him a plea deal.
In return for pleading guilty, they’d return a small amount of the $74 million they seized from his bank accounts in 2018, but Pras declined the deal.
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Pras’ defense team is also expected to present him as more of an unwitting and naive fall guy in the saga — while prosecutors see him more of a major player, sources told The Post.

They likely plan to hit him with the triple whammy of fattening Obama’s campaign coffers with dirty money, leaning on Trump to make the scandal with Low and 1MDB go away — and being a mouthpiece for Chinese power in Washington.
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As Rolling Stone put it: “He faces a towering criminal indictment that, putting the specific charges aside for a moment, is part of a decade-long investigation that implicates two of the past three presidential administrations, Leonardo DiCaprio, Goldman Sachs, casino tycoon Steve Wynn, (Obama fund-raiser) Frank White Jr., plus like a bad Rat Pack reboot — Oceans 14: Mar-a-Lago! — a screwy crew of scheming political donors and wannabe operatives who got in over their heads, broke some laws (wittingly or not), and have since rolled under government pressure and agreed to testify against Pras apparently to save their own hides.”

The rapper declined to speak to The New York Post, who he unsuccessfully sued in 2016 for defamation, for this story.

He had claimed in the $30 million suit that he was described as having failed to perform as expected as the headliner at a 9/11 charity event for a foundation with which he was purportedly affiliated.
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After reading these parts, yea he got in way over his head and thought he was finessing, but is gunna end up taking an L in the end. There's an American Greed episode Low and all the money he stole, its crazy.

But I'm leaning towards the fact that he should of took the plea. Pras was successful in the music biz, but he wasnt successful enough to have 74 mill cash in his account, unless he's got another profession no one knows about. He's really bout to risk a couple decades in prison because he didnt wanna let most of that money go, smh.
 
LurkerSix said:
After reading these parts, yea he got in way over his head and thought he was finessing, but is gunna end up taking an L in the end. There's an American Greed episode Low and all the money he stole, its crazy.

But I'm leaning towards the fact that he should of took the plea. Pras was successful in the music biz, but he wasnt successful enough to have 74 mill cash in his account, unless he's got another profession no one knows about. He's really bout to risk a couple decades in prison because he didnt wanna let most of that money go, smh.
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I want to believe his intentions were good. Bc his donations weren't partisan.

And the fact he is tied to big names on Hollywood, Capitol Hill and Wall Street makes me think he's gonna get off and this will buried. Bc no one is talking about this except gossip and music sites.
 
Lamarquise said:
I want to believe his intentions were good. Bc his donations weren't partisan.

And the fact he is tied to big names on Hollywood, Capitol Hill and Wall Street makes me think he's gonna get off and this will buried. Bc no one is talking about this except gossip and music sites.
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I thought that too till I saw how much they seized from his account & that he turned it down the plea of just pleading guilty and returning most of that stolen money. He said no like it was his money. That Low guy stole 4 billion from the Malaysia government, and gave 100 mill to Pras to be his puppet. What supports that is them having that message from Pras's personal email, trying to pressure the US to send that guy sent back to China for arrest. Why the fuck does some random black american rapper care that America isnt extraditing a Chinese critic of the Chinese government?

I dont think he's beating this cleanly, because his ties to big names in hollywood, wallstreet & capitol hill arnt real ties, thats why the judge threw out his subpoena list. Pretty sure his lawyers named anyone who attended the expensive fundraisers with him.

Pras thought he found a rich foreign dummy that was just willing to give him 100mill Now that dummy is hiding in China somewhere and Pras standing around saying he didnt do anything and is innocent.
 
LurkerSix said:
I thought that too till I saw how much they seized from his account & that he turned it down the plea of just pleading guilty and returning most of that stolen money. He said no like it was his money. That Low guy stole 4 billion from the Malaysia government, and gave 100 mill to Pras to be his puppet. What supports that is them having that message from Pras's personal email, trying to pressure the US to send that guy sent back to China for arrest. Why the fuck does some random black american rapper care that America isnt extraditing a Chinese critic of the Chinese government?

I dont think he's beating this cleanly, because his ties to big names in hollywood, wallstreet & capitol hill arnt real ties, thats why the judge threw out his subpoena list. Pretty sure his lawyers named anyone who attended the expensive fundraisers with him.

Pras thought he found a rich foreign dummy that was just willing to give him 100mill Now that dummy is hiding in China somewhere and Pras standing around saying he didnt do anything and is innocent.
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I do think having those people listed in the subpoena will help establish a conspiracy theory. And you have to remember he was born in Haiti. He is that before he's Americans.

But I agree with your assessment
 

Pras Testifies During Federal Conspiracy Trial, Names Self As Unofficial FBI Informant​

"After consulting with my attorneys and the universe, I decided that I will testify," he stated in court.

Pras Michel opted to testify in his federal conspiracy trial on Tuesday (April 18). The Fugees rapper, 50, revealed he made the decision “after consulting with my attorneys and the universe,” per Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman on Twitter.

During his testimony, Michel admitted that he served as an informal FBI informantfor the U.S., according to Rolling Stone, during China’s attempt to extradite dissident Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui with the help of Malaysian financier Jho Low, who is currently a fugitive. He added that he voluntarily met with FBI agents on several occasions to discuss Guo and three Americans whom were being held hostage in China.

“I took it upon myself to report because I thought the FBI should know,” Michel explained.

He has plead not guilty on federal counts of conspiracy and falsifying records. The charges are tied to Low’s alleged crimes, in which he was accused of stealing $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

Prosecutors claim Michel pocketed millions from Low during both the Barack Obama and Donald Trump presidential administrations. Michel and Low first met at a nightclub in 2006. Bloomberg reported Michel explained he served as a “celebrity surrogate” for Low, stating the financier paid him $20 million to help obtain a photo with Obama in 2012. Low did get said photo at the White House Christmas Party that year.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who testified in the trial earlier this month, claimed to be impressed by Low’s reputation of being “sort of a prodigy in the business world and ultra-successful.”

Michel later told Rolling Stone that he met Low when he was zealous about joining politics as a means to “help people.” Adding, “I was one of those people who was just dabbling. I never thought I would be full-time into politics. I realized politics is not for me. The problem with politics is this: It’s that the people within politics, they’re dirtier than the people who are not in politics.”

He insists that he’s never made any political donations on Low’s behalf. Michel is facing 22 years in prison if convicted.

www.vibe.com

Pras Testifies During Federal Conspiracy Trial, Names Self As Unofficial FBI Informant

“After consulting with my attorneys and the universe, I decided that I will testify,” he stated in court.
www.vibe.com www.vibe.com
 
. Michel and Low first met at a nightclub in 2006. Bloomberg reported Michel explained he served as a “celebrity surrogate” for Low, stating the financier paid him $20 million to help obtain a photo with Obama in 2012. Low did get said photo at the White House Christmas Party that year.
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Yea, cuz thats not fishy. Watch, we gunna have to listen to a Try Lanez like audio from him about this being a set up.
 
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