Overview
- Michel, who turned himself in Thursday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona, is now in federal custody, according to inmate records and his spokesperson.
- A federal jury in April 2023 convicted the Fugees co-founder on 10 counts that included money laundering, illegal foreign lobbying, campaign finance violations, witness tampering, and acting as an unregistered agent after a trial that featured testimony from Leonardo DiCaprio.
- U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly later imposed a 14-year prison term and ordered about $64.9 million in forfeiture, with his surrender date extended from January to March and then to April 30.
- Prosecutors say he worked with Malaysian financier Jho Low to route foreign money through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and to lobby the Trump administration to curb investigations into Low, who remains a fugitive.
- His lawyers say the appeal will target Foreign Agents Registration Act counts after a judge denied his bid for a new trial that claimed ineffective counsel and the use of AI in drafting closing arguments.