Pras of the Fugees charged in Illegal Scheme to Raise Money for Obama
zili danto
Photo: Pras Michel, one of the founding members of the hip-hop group the Fugees, is charged with federal campaign finance violations. CreditCreditSlaven Vlasic/Getty Images
One
of the founding members of the hip-hop group the Fugees and a fugitive
Malaysian financier have been charged with conspiring to violate federal
campaign finance law by funneling millions of dollars worth of foreign
money into the 2012 presidential election, the Justice Department said
Friday.
A four-count indictment accuses the financier, Low Taek Jho, of transferring more than $21 million from overseas to the rapper Prakazrel Michel, known as Pras, from June 2012 through that November. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Michel then gave $865,000 of that money to a network of straw donors who used it to make campaign contributions to a candidate identified as Candidate A.
While the indictment unsealed on Friday does not specifically name the candidate in question — who is accused of no wrongdoing — it clearly refers to former President Barack Obama. The indictment includes allusions to Candidate A having a presidential administration and hosting an event at the White House that Mr. Low either “attended or arranged for his associates to attend.”
A spokesman for Mr. Obama did not respond to a message seeking comment on Friday.
The indictment adds to a list of legal troubles for Mr. Low, also known as Jho Low. He has been wanted by law enforcement in the United States and Malaysia for his alleged role in the theft of $4.5 billion from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. That case contributed to the electoral defeat and eventual indictment of the country’s former prime minister, Najib Razak.
Mr. Michel and Mr. Low have both been charged with violations of campaign finance law and conspiracy to defraud the United States government. Mr. Michel has additionally been charged with concealing material facts and lying in connection with the conspiracy.
Mr. Michel pleaded not guilty on Friday before Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey of United States District Court for the District of Columbia, said Barry J. Pollack, his lawyer. He was not detained.
“Mr. Michel is extremely disappointed that so many years after the fact the government would bring charges related to 2012 campaign contributions,” Mr. Pollack said. “Mr. Michel is innocent of these charges and looks forward to having the case heard by a jury.”
The Justice Department said on Friday that Mr. Low remained at large. A spokeswoman for Mr. Low, who declined to provide his whereabouts, denied the charges filed on Friday.
“The allegations against Mr. Low have no basis in fact,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “Mr. Low has never made any campaign contributions directly or indirectly in the U.S. and he unequivocally denies any involvement in or knowledge of the alleged activities.”
Prosecutors allege that Mr. Michel used checks, direct deposits and cash payments to send Mr. Low’s money to the network of roughly 20 straw donors that he recruited to make the donations.
Mr. Michel tried to cover his tracks by falsely claiming that the payments were remuneration for business deals or gifts, prosecutors said. They said he also used more than $1 million of Mr. Low’s money to make a large donation to an independent expenditure committee in his name and in the name of a company owned by Mr. Michel.
The indictment accuses Mr. Michel and Mr. Low of concealing the scheme from the candidate, his campaign and administration, and federal regulators. But prosecutors also said the two hoped their largess would buy them political influence, in part by making Mr. Michel look important.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Michel attended at least two events with the candidate in June and September 2012. In September, Mr. Michel took two of the straw donors and Mr. Low’s father to a fund-raiser at a private home in Washington, where they met the candidate and took pictures with him.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Michel made false statements to the Federal Election Commission that claimed that he was the source of the money used in the $1 million donation. Prosecutors said his alleged deception also caused others to make false statements to the F.E.C., including a presidential joint fund-raising committee and the committee that received the $1 million donation.
Law enforcement officials in Malaysia and the United States have described Mr. Low as an important player in the alleged theft of approximately $4.5 billion from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state-owned development company.
The scandal contributed to the electoral defeat of the former prime minister, Mr. Najib, last May. Mr. Najib was discovered to have $731 million of the pilfered funds in his own bank accounts and now faces dozens of charges in connection with the alleged theft. He went on trial last month in the first of several corruption cases.
Last November, Mr. Low and two former Goldman Sachs bankers, Roger Ng and Tim Leissner, were indicted in the Eastern District of New York on charges of conspiring to launder billions of dollars and to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said.
Mr. Ng, who had been in custody in Malaysia, was extradited to the United States and pleaded not guilty last week. Mr. Leissner, his former boss, pleaded guilty to money laundering and foreign bribery charges last August. Mr. Low has denied the allegations made in that case.
Bloomberg , Greg Farrell and Sridhar Natarajan, Bloomberg, May 10, 2019
https://yhoo.it/2He7bAb
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. prosecutors brought additional charges against Jho Low, the Malaysian national accused of looting the 1MDB wealth fund, for campaign-finance violations related to President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election effort.
According to an indictment unsealed Friday in Washington, Low transferred $21.6 million to Pras Michel, a musician and film producer, who spread approximately $865,000 among 20 people. These straw donors, in turn, gave the cash to a presidential fundraising committee without indicating it had come from a foreign source. Michel also sent more than $1 million to an independent election committee, prosecutors said.
The charges, against both men, show a wide-ranging effort by the Malaysian financier to win influence in the U.S. In an indictment last year, Low and Michel weren’t charged but were identifiable as co-conspirators trying to influence the Trump administration as the Justice Department investigated the 1MDB scandal.
Now, the Trump Justice Department says Low’s influence-buying goes back to the previous administration.
During Obama’s re-election campaign, Michel and Jho Low’s father attended a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., and sat on each side of Obama, according to the indictment.
Candidate A
Obama’s name doesn’t appear in the indictment, which refers to him only as Candidate A. Nor is there any indication that he or the political groups knew of the foreign efforts or did anything wrong. The straw donors also weren’t identified.
Obama, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The newest charges grew out of the Justice Department’s investigation into fraud and corruption at 1MDB. Meant to promote economic development in Malaysia, the fund was instead used as a massive slush fund by Low, an adviser to Malaysia’s then-prime minister, Najib Razak, according to U.S. prosecutors and other authorites around the world.
Low was previously charged in the U.S. with conspiring to bribe foreign officials and launder money. In Malaysia, he has been charged with receiving more than $1 billion from the state fund in 2009 and 2011, and with multiple counts of money laundering. Low’s whereabouts are unknown.
“Mr. Low is innocent -- and he is presumed innocent under U.S. law,” said a spokesman. “Mr. Low has never made any campaign contributions directly or indirectly in the U.S. and he unequivocally denies any involvement in or knowledge of the alleged activities.”
“Mr. Michel is innocent of these charges and looks forward to having the case heard by a jury,” his lawyer, Barry Pollack, said earlier Thursday, responding to a Bloomberg report that the charges were imminent.
Getting Access
The indictment describes efforts by Jho Low to use Michel to get access to Obama at two-big ticket fundraising events during the 2012 re-election campaign.
One, a June event in Miami, required a minimum contribution of $40,000. Michel failed in an attempt to get last-minute permission for Low to attend, according to the filing. Three months later, Michel tried to get Low and his father into Obama’s presence at an event in Washington, D.C. The father was allowed in, and during the fundraiser he and Michel sat on each side of “Candidate A," according to the indictment. The entry price for that event wasn’t clear.
The men took photos of themselves with the president and also ordered copies of professional photos taken of the event showing them with Obama, according to the indictment.
Although the charges on Friday relate to conduct from 2012, Michel was a central player in the more recent bank-fraud machinations that led to a guilty plea by former Justice Department official George Higginbotham last November, according to court documents filed in that case.
How Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal Shook the Financial World: QuickTake
In that scheme, Higginbotham admitted that he conspired to influence U.S. investigations into the looting of 1MDB. He admitted to falsifying paperwork in 2017 to create bank accounts that were then used to funnel money from “Co-conspirator B” in Asia to “Co-conspirator A” in the U.S. The descriptions of the co-conspirators match those of Low and Michel.
According to Higginbotham’s plea, he created the false paper trail at the “direction” of Michel. Higginbotham understood that Michel and Low created these false companies because no U.S. bank would accept funds from Low, who had been identified by the Justice Department in 2016 as the architect of the 1MDB fraud.
Michel, 46, is a musician, actor and producer of records and films who rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the Fugees, a hip-hop group that also included Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. He appeared in and produced several films, including a documentary on homelessness in Los Angeles. His 1998 debut album, “Ghetto Supastar,” included a memorable cameo.
“Hi, this is Donald Trump, and I have no doubt that you are going to be a big success,” the future president said in one interlude. “I hope very soon you’re going to be in the leagues with me. So good luck, man.”
By 2012, Michel was drawn into the orbit of Low, whose parties attracted Hollywood producers, A-list actor Leonardo DiCaprio and music stars including Swizz Beatz and his wife, Alicia Keys, according to the book “Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World.”
Similar charges against Michel have emerged before. In 2016, the Federal Election Commission dismissed charges that Michel made an illegal contribution by funneling $875,000 through a limited-liability company he controlled. The LLC was listed as contributing to the super PAC called Black Men Vote.
The charges against Low and Michel come a few weeks after Attorney General William Barr received a waiver from the White House allowing him to participate in the investigation and litigation involving 1MDB. Barr’s former law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represents Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, for its role in raising more than $6 billion for the fund.
https://bit.ly/2HgemYG
Èzili Dantò's Note: Here's the first interview for the month of May I did this past Sunday. I tried to not give a litany of what is wrong, or the horrors of colonialism, but the insert the 9 restorative justice points for Main Street with Black specifics. It provides solution and talking points.
If you have not become an Èzili Patron to support and sustain this work, please support and sustain on Patreon or Paypal: https://www.patreon.com/ezilidanto ; Donate to support Èzili's HLLN work. Go to - http://bit.ly/7UMx7q
This Africa On The Move panel sums up the week in resistance for 5/4/2019 - A War Against Our People. Èzili's segment starts at 32:32 to 1 hour: 51minutes into the program.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/africa-on-the-move/2019/05/05/a-war-against-our-people--542019
The interview covers the lengths the global elites go to in order to break the back of the Haitian resistance and US Main Street restorative justice, new critical thinking points to consider. Èzili also speaks about #ADOE, U.S. Main Street restorative justice debate points with Black specifics. And, answers the panel's questions about the current situation Haiti, Venezuela, the US mercenaries caught in Haiti a few months ago and how do we assuage the enormous suffering. What is the way forward? Some of the specifics mention in the interview as the nine basic debate points include:
1. End Mass incarceration;
2. Universal Student Loan Elimination;
3. Universal Free Education -Make all public colleges Free;
4. A Universal Basic Income of $1,000 per month for all Americans;
5. A living $15 or $20 per hour wage adjusted for inflation. But what does that mean if there are no jobs/A right to work with dignity ;
6. Green New Deal ;
7. Medicare For All;
8. Universal child care – child day care from infancy to about age 4/5 for everybody (for working parents, stay at home moms et al...);
9. Stop US Regime Changes (end weaponized charity and humanitarian imperialism that cloaks Western resource plunder and is root cause of mass migration -- apply, for instance Èzili 3 principles for a New World in Western Hemisphere.)
Click now and listen: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/africa-on-the-move/2019/05/05/a-war-against-our-people--542019
The deadliest gang in Haiti are called the 9 in the Core Group and then the Bigio, Boulos, Mevs, Acra crew with the legal bandits Jovenel Moise/Martelly House Negroes they hire. End of story. Nothing to see here except a bunch of kneegrows not worth the melanin skin the universe endowed them with. Until then...catch up. Stop falling for every Arnel Joseph red herring propaganda to push Black on Black crime that the Colonists and its Jovenel Moise puppets want you to focus on to make themselves relevant, distract from the need to end the imperialist war enslaving the majority in Haiti. --- Go to U.S. Mercenaries Arrested in Haiti https://bit.ly/2ViNixw ; and, Who is Dropping Planeloads of Illegal Weapons in Haiti and Why? - https://bit.ly/2TSrgkQ