While Pras Michél has been joining in with his Fugees band members on the 25th anniversary of the “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” Tour, it seems that Michél continues to fight for his freedom.
The “Ghetto Superstar” rapper, whose real name is Prakazrel Michél, was convicted in April 2023 of several charges, including money laundering, witness tampering, and participating in an illegal international financial scheme where he funneled millions of dollars from Malaysian businessman Jho Low into presidential campaigns for Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
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Federal prosecutors claimed that Michel received roughly $88 million from Low, whom he met in 2006 at a nightclub in New York. This money was allegedly utilized to increase his influence in the United States on behalf of China and hinder the investigation and prosecution of Low for his involvement in the fraud linked to the collapse of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MBD. Some of the fund was used to create major Hollywood projects like the 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
At trial, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions both testified
A jury took three hours to convict Michél of these crimes, based on evidence presented from both sides. Now the Fugees founding member faces up to 20 years in federal prison, but he hopes a last-minute Hail Mary will help him maintain his freedom.
Jho Low paid Rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the seven time platinum, GRAMMY award winning Hip Hop group the "Fugees," $20 million to get photographed with President Barack Obama and Michelle in 2012.
— Sophia Johnson (@Pattyfree) April 27, 2023
Pras is also accused of involvement with Low in three schemes for which… pic.twitter.com/LS8pQCHSgw
Michél’s new legal team filed a motion on Monday, Oct. 16, alleging that the original attorneys, with a particular focus on the lead lawyer David E. Kenner who represented him during the trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, were “deficient throughout” the course of the trial.
The new lawyers allege that Kenner used an experimental A.I. program to create a closing argument, adding that he and another lawyer named Alon Israely, “appear to have had an undisclosed financial interest” in the program EyeLevel.AI.
While it is unclear if the lawyers are investors in the service, a press release from the company quotes one of the lawyers on the laurels of the program — and suggests that he used it in Michél’s case. The title said, “First Use of AL in Federal Trial” EyeLevel’s Litigation Assists Aids Defense in Pras Michel Fraud Case.”
According to the release, Kenner said, “This is an absolute game changer for complex litigation. The system turned hours or days of legal work into seconds. This is a look into the future of how cases will be conducted.”
The claim that Kenner and Israely have put money into the company is being disputed by Neil Katz, founder and chief operating officer of EyeLevel.AI. On Thursday, Oct. 19, Kenner said the allegations were “categorically untrue,” according to The New York Times.
Katz also dismissed that EyeLevel.AI was solely used, replacing the work that Kenner would have done as Michél’s defense lawyer.
“The idea here is not that you would take what is outputted by a computer and walk it into a courtroom and read it into the record. That’s not what happened here,” he said.
“Human lawyers take this as one important input that helps them get to the ideas faster,” he continued. “They ultimately write the legal arguments that they present in a court.”
Still, Michél’s new team said that for him to rely on the technology on such an important part of the case added to “prejudicial ineffective assistance of counsel.”
The new lawyer office representing the case, ArentFox Schiff, wrote in the filing that Kenner “used an experimental artificial intelligence (AI) program to draft the closing argument, ignoring the best arguments and conflating the charged schemes, and he then publicly boasted that the AI program ‘turned hours or days of legal work into seconds.’”
ArentFox Schiff representation also said it was “apparent that Kenner and his co-counsel appear to have had an undisclosed financial stake in the AI program, and they experimented with it during Michél’s trial so they could issue a press release afterward promoting the program — a clear conflict of interest.”
The new attorney is not alone in this belief.
Former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg wrote in a statement that was included with the motion, “Michel’s prior publicist also informed members of the current defense team that Kenner proudly stated at the end of the trial words to the effect of ‘AI wrote our closing,’ ” according to Politico.
Zeidenberg said he believes that Kenner cared more about promoting his AI program and “saving himself from the contempt proceeding” than working to keep Michél out of jail.
As he awaits news about a potential retrial, it appears that Michél is enjoying his recent onstage reunions with the other Fugees members, including during a tour stop at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Oct. 17.
