WASHINGTON (AP) — A rapper and founding member of the 1990s hip-hop group The Fugees is fighting the U.S. government over a multimillion-dollar forfeiture complaint.
Prakazrel "Pras" Michel faces allegations in a civil forfeiture complaint that he participated in a scheme to try to influence a Justice Department investigation into corruption involving a Malaysian investment fund.
Justice Department officials are trying to recover roughly $38 million from Michel that they say can be connected to that scheme.
Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Michel, asked Monday to dismiss the complaint. He says there's no evidence that the funds in the accounts the government wants to seize are proceeds of fraud.
Michel has denied wrongdoing. He told The Washington Post in a statement last month that his name was being "dragged through the mud."
https://www.mdjonline.com/news/national/ex-fugees-member-pras-fights-us-forfeiture-complaint/article_90ff6b1a-9fe0-5705-bf6a-24f1b02e808a.html
Ex-Fugees rapper helped Jho Low funnel $73M into US accounts: feds
Ex-Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel has landed in the middle of an international corruption scandal that has ensnared Goldman Sachs — and attracted the attention of the Department of Justice.
According to an explosive suit filed Friday by the DOJ, the “Ghetto Superstar” singer conspired with an ex-DOJ official to thwart a federal probe into the $6 billion bribery and money-laundering scandal surrounding Malaysian playboy financier Jho Low, the DOJ alleged.
The funds had been earmarked to go to an unnamed financier and his wife, who would try to influence the DOJ to drop its criminal investigation into Low, according to the DOJ’s suit.
https://nypost.com/2018/11/30/ex-fugees-rapper-helped-jho-low-funnel-73m-into-us-accounts-feds/