Pras Michel of The Fugees Embroiled In Trump-Adjacent Money Laundering Scheme

When it comes to the high-stakes world of international politics, East Coast hip-hop doesn’t usually come to mind. However, The New York Times reports that Pras Michel of The Fugees has found himself in legal trouble after being implicated in a scheme to launder money that would be used to pay to end a federal investigation into Malaysian financier Jho Low’s plan to loot the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad. This information was revealed in a court filing that was made public by the United States Department of Justice on Friday.

The DOJ case states that a former Trump campaign official, Elliott Broidy, was paid to lobby the current president, hoping to end to the investigation into the potential embezzlement of billions of dollars from the Malaysian fund, also known as 1MBD. The filings indicate that former Justice Department employee George Higginbotham admitted to lying to banks about the source of tens of millions of dollars that were funneled into the U.S., directly from Low, who’s been charged with money laundering himself. The investigation into Low’s purported embezzlement of billions of dollars from a state-owned company is separate from the investigation into the laundering of funds by Higginbotham.

In his guilty plea, Higginbotham said he and Michel made arrangements for millions of dollars that came from Low to be transferred to a law firm that’s owned by Broidy’s wife and hid Low’s ties to the lobbying campaign. The money was compensation for the former chairman of campaign and inauguration committees for Trump to lobby to end the international investigation.

This case is peripheral to the more-publicized investigation by Robert Mueller into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, though the New York Times indicates that Broidy has attracted attention from that investigation. Broidy has not been charged with a crime in this case and wasn’t specifically mentioned in the filings, but has admitted that he’s who is referred to as “Person 1” or “Individual 1” who is a “nonlawyer business owner” who “owns several businesses, including an investment firm.”

Pitchfork reports that no charges have been filed against Michel at this time. Higginbotham has been charged with one felony count: “conspiracy to make false statements” to a bank.