Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
Pras is finally speaking up regarding some charges he is facing. He denies being apart of a international financial conspiracy.
As spotted on Vulture The Fugees founding member is claiming he had no parts of one of the world’s most infamous scandals. In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Business Week Magazine he gives his side of the story that in essence reads likes a James Bond spy caper. He says back in 2017 he was summoned to a midtown Manhattan hotel for a secret meeting with Sun Lijun, China’s vice minister of public security.
His account is that he formed a relationship Jho Low, a Malaysian fugitive businessman. The federal authorities claim Pras eventually started funneling Low’s money which reportedly included funds being donated to Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign (a crime for a foreign national). But Low had allegedly been embezzling funds from the Malaysian fund 1MDB and the feds soon came for the “How Many Mics” rapper and seized a whopping $95 million dollars from him.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Pras on May 10, 2019, for his part in an alleged criminal conspiracy with Low. In June 2021, Pras was charged by a federal grand jury for running a back-channel campaign to get the Trump administration to drop an investigation of Jho Low and the 1MDB investment company. He was also accused of advocating for the extradition of a Chinese dissident, Guo Wengui, from the United States.
Pras has refused a plea deal. His trial will start March 27.
