Pras Michel, a member of the Fugees, is scheduled to go on trial on November 4. The musician is accused of federal money laundering, The Root has reported. Michel has entered a not-guilty plea. Over 70 individuals are reportedly being prepared as potential government witnesses, according to Politico's Playbook.
Numerous Trump administration representatives and actor Leonardo DiCaprio are on the list. It appears that some of the money used to produce his 2013 movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" was taken, according to prosecutors, from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. Michel pled not guilty to conspiracy and record-falsification federal charges back in 2019.
The Justice Department is of the opinion that Michel was one of the numerous associates of Jho Low and 1MDB, a wealth management company that promoted economic growth in Malaysia. Low is charged with stealing from the $4.5 billion "slush fund."
For assisting Low, Michel allegedly received anywhere between $8 and $40 million. In the same year, DiCaprio gave covert testimony to a grand jury in Washington, D.C., about the alleged part he allegedly played in the conspiracy. He was identified as a participant in an alleged plot using the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which allegedly utilised funds from the 1MDB fund to support The Wolf of Wall Street.
Former national security advisor H.R. McMaster, former White House head of staff John Kelly, and former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger are among the Trump officials who could testify. Elliott Broidy, a former RNC deputy finance chair and lobbyist, is also a potential witness.
He admitted his role as an unregistered foreign agent advancing Malaysian and Chinese interests in 2020 and entered a guilty plea. Despite being indicted in the federal investigation into 1MDB, Broidy was granted a pardon by Trump in 2021.
