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Former hip-hop artist Prakazrel “Pras” Michel and fugitive Malaysia financier Jho Low are facing new criminal charges after allegedly “orchestrating an unregistered, back-channel campaign” to get the Donald Trump administration to drop its investigation of individuals connected to the investment company 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
The new charges accuse them of engaging in illegal lobbying campaigns to have Chinese dissident billionaire Guo Wengui. According to the lawsuit filed Friday by the DOJ, the two conspired with Nickie Lum Davis and Elliot Broidy, a former GOP fundraiser who was pardoned by Trump, to obstruct a federal probe into the $6 billion bribery and money-laundering scandal surrounding 1MDB.
The new charges come over two years after Pras, along with a former Justice Department official George Higginbotham, were accused of taking part in a conspiracy to funnel $73 million through multiple bank accounts they allegedly opened to help Low, Complex reports. The scheme was in an effort to pay off other DOJ officials in the hope of influencing the criminal investigation.
Pras and Low are charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and Pras is also charged with witness tampering + conspiracy to make false statements to banks.
Low faces a maximum penalty of five to 10 years in prison if convicted, while Pras is looking at five to 20 years in prison, per count, according to the DOJ.