Fugees co-founder Pras Michel has been found guilty of being part of a group that laundered billions of dollars on behalf of Malaysia on American soil.

The court found Pras guilty on ten counts, including violations of campaign finance regulations and money laundering. Pras Michel took over $100 million from Malaysian billionaire Joe Low to increase his influence in the US.

According to the prosecution, “the conspiracy began in 2012 when Lowe was willing to spend a lot of money to gain influence in Washington. That’s why he made a deal with Michel to secretly donate money to groups that supported then President Barack Obama. They later tried to contact Trump administration officials.”

The American rapper faces up to 20 years in prison.

The biggest scandal in Malaysian history

In 2015, the 1MDB case became known, a major corruption, bribery and money laundering scandal that began in 2009 in Malaysia. Joe Low is supposed to be the mastermind behind this vaunted scam that rocked the business world.

Prior to the 1MDB allegations, Joe Low lived a rich and lavish life. He constantly hosted parties and events with high-profile guests. He paid celebrities and celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski to visit them. It is noted that there was a couple with Paris Hilton, as well as with the famous model Miranda Kerr.

Najib Razak, who was ousted from power in the May 2018 general election, has been arrested several times over the past year on 1MDB-related charges.

When he became prime minister, he was looking for ways to finance his government, when Low came up with the idea of ​​creating a sovereign wealth fund. So they created 1MDB. Lowe took control of the fund. He gained access to unlimited wealth and embezzled millions of dollars of public money to fund his parties.

In 2015, when the fraud was exposed, Najib Razak was accused of transferring over $700 million to his personal bank accounts from 1Malaysia Development Berhad. In 2020, a Malaysian court found the country’s former prime minister guilty of corruption and sentenced him to 12 years in prison in the first trial linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB sovereign wealth fund scandal. He was also fined $49.40 million for abuse of power.

In 2016, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said the government would seek to recover more than $1 billion in 1MDB assets. Authorities confiscated Lowe’s plane, mansions, and his share of 1MBD. Some of his friends delivered their gifts to the government. Kerr donated $8 million worth of jewelry and DiCaprio donated $13 million worth of art. Goldman Sachs, implicated in the scandal, agreed to pay the US $5 billion and a $2.9 billion fine.

Source: CNN, AP.