Why was Pras Michel convicted? What did Pras Michel do?

American rapper, Pras Michel has been convicted on 10 felony counts in a conspiracy trial.

On Wednesday, April 26, 2023. he was charged with several offenses including “acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China, conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering,” however, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

His lawyer David Kenner told reporters that they were very unpleased with the court’s decision.

“We are extremely disappointed in the results and are very, very confident in the ultimate outcome of this case. This is not over, I remain very, very confident we will ultimately prevail in this matter,” he said.

Charges against him stem from his relationship with Jho Low, a well-known Malaysian billionaire businessman who recently spend a tremendous amount on his friends and luxury lifestyle.

Low is yet to be arrested, however, he was charged alongside Pras and differently accused of embezzling billions of cash from 2009 to 2014, from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund called 1MDB.

According to Pras, Low offered him about $20 million because he wanted to take a photo with President Obama in 2o12, but the money was not meant to be used as illegal foreign campaign contributions or as payment for his service.

Pras also shared that he gave about $800K of the money to his friends so they can donate in their names and gain access to exclusive $40,000-per-seat Obama fundraisers in Miami and Washington D.C.

He later sent letters to his friends after they had been contacted by the FBI, stating that the money paid to them earlier was a loan that had to be repaid in full.

“In retrospect, that was a dumb thing to do,” Pras told the media.

Pras also worked in Low to lobby President Trump’s administration to get the Justice Department to drop its investigation of Low related to the 1MDB scandal.