Fugees co-founder breaks silence on possible 22-year prison sentence: ‘I never wanted to be a spy’

In a recent interview with Variety, the co-founder of the iconic hip-hop trio “The Fugees,” Pras Michel, spoke out for the first time since facing the possibility of 22 years in prison. “The Fugees,” founded in 1990, is an N.J. group that is made up of Pras, Lauryn Hill, and Wyclef Jean. Last April, Michel was found guilty of 10 counts in a corruption case, which linked him to $4.5 billion embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. A jury found Pras guilty of violating campaign finance laws during Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection bid and illegally lobbying the Donald Trump administration in 2017. The government now considers him a Chinese spy, and the rapper, 52, is now facing over two decades of prison time. Michel stated in his interview with the magazine that he didn’t want to be a spy. “I don’t know if subconsciously it was a bit exciting for me too,” Michel said. “I like spy movies, but I never wanted to be a spy. I don’t think that’s sexy. But a part of it felt like that.” “Technically, I’m a foreign agent,” he continued. A press release that followed shortly after the...