Pras Michel, best known as one of the founding members of the influential and Grammy-winning hip-hop trio the Fugees, has received a 14-year federal prison sentence for his central role in a sprawling foreign-influence and illicit campaign-finance operation tied to the 2012 U.S. presidential race. The sentence, handed down on Thursday, caps a years-long legal saga that drew national attention both for the celebrity at its center and the extensive network of covert political maneuvering it revealed. Michel’s case stands out as one of the most consequential campaign-finance prosecutions involving a public figure in recent memory, underscoring how global financial schemes can intersect with American elections in ways that challenge long-standing legal safeguards. His conviction, which arrived in 2023, made clear that his dealings extended far beyond the entertainment world, implicating him in a broad effort to quietly funnel foreign money into a U.S. political system in which such contributions are explicitly outlawed.