Pras, Facing 22 Years In Prison, Says He’s Done With Fugees

Fugees member Pras Michél is facing 22 years in prison for his 2023 conviction in a federal money laundering conspiracy, for which he’s seeking a retrial. He is essentially accused of being a Chinese spy for his role in a scheme to wield political influence, though in a new Variety feature, he says he “never wanted to be a spy.”

In the same story, he says he’s finished with the Fugees forever. He recently sued Lauryn Hill for fraud over Fugees’ canceled North American tour, and he won’t be joining Hill and Wyclef Jean for the European leg, if it even happens:

I’m done with that. They’re going to Europe [to tour]. I can’t go, so… It’s what it is. You can’t give people that kind of energy. So you could be frustrated, you could be disappointed, but I really believe in my path and in my journey, and I believe what’s mine, no one’s going to be able to take it away from me. So it’s better that you have a small group of people who really believe in you and believe in what you’re doing than to have 100 people around you, and the minute something happens — boom. People just disappear.

Hill has called Michél’s lawsuit “baseless” and “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks.”