Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio testified in an international money laundering case involving 'The Fugees’ founding member, Prakazrel ‘Pras’ Michel. Mr Michel allegedly received over $100m from Malaysian billionaire Jho Low through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. The prosecutors asserted that he tried to curb an investigation into that same financer under former President Donald Trump’s administration.
DiCaprio is connected with the case as due to his years-long friendship with Low, who was one of the primary financiers of the movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. Low is currently a fugitive but has maintained his innocence.
Michel became a channel for Low’s stolen money and his attempts to influence the U.S. government, as per charges.
DiCaprio said that he met Low at a birthday party in Las Vegas in 2010 and became friends with him. ‘I understood him to be a huge businessman with many different connections in Abu Dhabi and Malaysia,’ he said. He also said that he met Michel at backstage after a Fugees concert in 1990’s.
Low regularly contributed to DiCaprio’s charitable foundation. Leonardo said he had assessed Low’s funding and legitimacy before forming a business relationship. ‘I was given the green light by my team as well as my studio,’ he said. He added, ‘He was a legitimate business person wanting to invest in the movie.’
He further said, ‘It was a significant sum — something to the tune of $20-30 million,’ he testified. ‘I said, ‘Wow that’s a lot of money!’
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