POLITICS MAY 10, 2019 / 4:12 PM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO

U.S. charges Ex-Fugees rapper, Malaysian businessman Low over funding in 2012 election

Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne
4 MIN READ

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday it had charged former Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel and wealthy Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, popularly known as “Jho Low,” for conspiring to steer illegal foreign campaign funds into the 2012 presidential election.

According to the unsealed indictment, between June 2012 and November 2012, Low directed the transfer of approximately $21.6 million from foreign entities and accounts to Michel to be funneled into the U.S. election while disguising it as legitimate campaign contributions.

The indictment did not reveal the identity of the presidential candidate.

However, Michel, who is a U.S. citizen, was a well-known avid supporter of former Democratic President Barack Obama, and federal election records show he contributed money to political committees that supported Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and other Democratic committees.

Under federal election law it is a crime for foreign nationals to make political contributions in U.S. federal, state or local elections.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 10, 2019

Entertainer/Businessman and Malaysian Financier Indicted for Conspiring to Make and Conceal Foreign and Conduit Contributions During 2012 U.S. Presidential Election

A United States entertainer and businessman and a Malaysian financier were charged in a four-count indictment unsealed today in the District of Columbia for conspiring to make and conceal foreign and conduit campaign contributions during the United States presidential election in 2012, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, 46, and Low Taek Jho, 37, also known as “Jho Low,” were charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government and for making foreign and conduit campaign contributions. Michel also was charged with one count of a scheme to conceal material facts and two counts of making a false entry in a record in connection with the conspiracy. Michel appeared today for his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey in the District of Columbia. Low remains at large.

According to the indictment, between June 2012 and November 2012, Low directed the transfer of approximately $21,600,000 from foreign entities and accounts to Michel for the purpose of funneling significant sums of money into the United States presidential election as purportedly legitimate contributions, all while concealing the true source of the money. To facilitate the excessive contributions and conceal their true source, Michel paid approximately $865,000 of the money received from Low to about 20 straw donors, or conduits, so that the straw donors could make donations in their names to a presidential joint fundraising committee. In addition, Michel personally directed more than $1 million of the money received from Low to an independent expenditure committee also involved in the presidential election in 2012.

The indictment also alleges that by funneling campaign contributions through straw donors, Michel caused a presidential joint fundraising committee to submit false reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), including a false amended report in June 2013. The committee’s reports were false because they identified the straw donors, rather than Low or Michel, as the true source of the contributions. In addition, the indictment alleges that by contributing more than $1 million of the money he received from Low to an independent expenditure committee, Michel also caused that committee to submit false reports to the FEC, insofar as those reports identified Michel as the source of the contributions when, in fact, it was Low. The indictment further alleges that in June 2015, Michel submitted a false declaration to the FEC in which he claimed that he had no reason to conceal the true source of his contributions to the independent expenditure committee in 2012, even though Michel knew that the true source of that money was Low and that Michel had funneled the foreign money into the election.

Low was indicted previously, along with former banker Ng Chong Hwa, also known as “Roger Ng,” in the Eastern District of New York for conspiring to launder billions of dollars and to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That case remains pending.

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