Pras Michel, a founding member of Fugees, has begun a 14-year prison sentence. The rapper, who was convicted in 2023 of charges including money laundering, illegal lobbying, and campaign finance violations, turned himself in to the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona, on Thursday (April 30).

“Today is a painful day for Pras, for his family, and for everyone who believes in a fair system of justice,” Michel’s spokesperson, Erica Dumas, said in a statement to Rolling Stone.

Federal prosecutors indicted Michel in 2019, accusing him of making illegal contributions to President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. They later expanded the charges to include bank fraud, concealment of material facts, witness tampering, violations of the FARA Act, and acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China.

“Pras honors the legal process as he reports to begin his sentence. The FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] related charges that led to his conviction are being vigorously contested on appeal, and his legal team believes the record will show that his rights were violated and the truth was obscured. This chapter is difficult, but it is not his final one.”

The charges stemmed from his apparent association with disgraced business mogul Jho Low, real name Low Taek Jho, who was accused of embezzling $4.5billion from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. Low has denied all accusations and maintains his innocence.

The 1MDB scandal was one of the biggest cases of financial fraud in history, and centered on a state-owned investment fund initiated by former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak in 2009. He was jailed in 2020 for absorbing US$756million from the fund into his personal bank accounts.

“He has to fight it on the inside,” Dumas added. “His appeal is in the very beginning stages. As you can imagine, it’s a very complicated case with lots of files.”

Low was alleged to be the mastermind behind the financial scandal, despite never holding an official position in the company, and allegedly used some of the money he stole to fund Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street. Michel’s trial included testimony from Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the lead role in the Scorsese film. The actor claimed that Low used some of the money to both help make the 2013 movie and get more influence in Hollywood.