Was the Michel-Low case just one of a "famous" rapper who didn't know right from wrong?

 

In this country there are some people of an “oppressed” group who have rebelled against the common notions of right and wrong for so long that they can’t tell the difference between them. They think they have a right to ignore accepted mores because they are used to “oppress” them. When such people come into money, fame and even political connections, they are not likely to understand concepts like “corruption,” “bribery” or “espionage” when it comes to dealing with foreign nationals who see them as gullible conduits in the exchange of “favors.” 

But a recent criminal case involving such as this also ensnared “celebrities” and Hollywood stars who seemed eager to exchange those “favors” for either money or merely for personal self-aggrandizement. Those “favors” included connecting with powerful politicians or unknowingly allowing foreign intelligence agents to gain a foothold in the country to conduct their business, and in one case at least, payment for services including the production costs of a major film. 

So That Umbrella Guy on YouTube has been particularly interested in this case; although while I agree that the lack of mainstream media coverage has been "strangely" weak given the players involved, I don’t agree that the Hollywood personages and rappers involved were actually aware of what they were involved in was precisely illegal, perhaps "only" just a tad unethical that might make them look "bad" if made public. 

But whatever he “thought,” Grammy-Award winning rapper Pras Michel of The Fugees (I admit I never heard of Michel or the group before) was convicted of charges of conspiring with a Malaysian financier who, according to Reuters, “orchestrated a series of foreign lobbying campaigns aimed at influencing the U.S. government under two presidents.”

Specifically, “Michel was charged with 10 counts of crimes including conspiracy, acting as an agent of a foreign government, witness tampering and falsifying campaign finance records. Prosecutors accused him of plotting with Malaysian businessman Jho Low to attempt to influence the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.” 

But that was the tip of the iceberg. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was allowed to escape prosecution by agreeing to be a prosecution witness, describing his own dealings with Low, which included Low helping to finance his The Wolf of Wall Street film. It is assumed that Low used embezzled money from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereign wealth fund, generally used for global investment. Low—who is believed to be currently in hiding in China—is currently facing trial in absentia in New York for his embezzlement schemes, for which a former Malaysian prime minister is currently in prison for.

Michel apparently was “low” on cash when he heard that Low was a man who liked to throw parties with celebrities and threw money and gifts at them to show his appreciation if they showed-up. Since Michel was black, Low apparently thought he had an inside track to arrange a photo-op with Barack Obama, and along with arranging a $2 million campaign contribution paid Michel $20 million for his “services," in what Michel testified was what he thought was “free money.” 

It was easy to understand that jurors would not buy that story, but what came later was even worse. Michel—already compromised by his dealings with Low—somehow became involved with Sun Lijun, who was China’s vice minister of public security. Sun was angry that he wasn’t able to obtain a meeting with either Donald Trump or then Attorney General Jeff Sessions in order to force the extradition of Chinese nationals like real estate billionaire Guo Wengui for making statements critical of the Chinese government. Guo may end-up being extradited anyways, as he is currently facing charges of $1 billion worth of fraud himself in a New York court.

While the U.S. government was not necessarily opposed to extraditing certain individuals, it was not inclined to cooperate as long as Chinese intelligence agents were operating a secret unit in the U.S.  to spy on and intimidate their targets. The FBI discovered that Michel’s dealings with Guo including a “deal’ to release from custody a pregnant Chinese national who was a relative of one of those China wanted extradited as a show of “good faith,” and this was actually done. Thus Michel was acting as an unregistered foreign agent, although he was “unaware” of this, and his attorney apparently did not “advise” him properly in regard to the activities he was now involved in.

According to Bloomberg, the FBI had been on Michel's tail for some time, and Michel was making it a lot easier for them to build a case against him. Michel clearly had no real clue about the trouble he was getting himself into:  “It often takes years of painstaking work for FBI agents to identify people collaborating with foreign governments. But now, Michél had come to them, happy even to identify some of his contacts abroad.”

It seems that Michel really got himself into hot water when, still not realizing he had done anything "wrong," his motives were allowed to become "suspect." It seemed that he wanted to help Sun (himself currently facing the death penalty in China for corruption) get Guo extradited, and because the U.S. government—we are now talking about the Trump administration—was not being helpful, Michel decided to go to the FBI himself and find out why, which only suggested Michel’s complete naiveté about how deep he was in doo-doo.

That Umbrella Guy only talked about this case as if it was just about Democratic corruption, but the real corruption occurred during the Trump years. As Bloomberg noted,  

To investigate this wild tale of celebrity and political intrigue, Bloomberg Businessweek drew on legal filings, interviews with people close to the case and a cache of previously undisclosed FBI and Justice Department documents. The records show how Michél, at Low’s request, helped assemble a team of Republican influencers—including fundraiser Elliott Broidy, businesswoman Nickie Lum Davis and casino magnate Steve Wynn—capable of reaching the highest levels of the Trump administration as it took hold of the US government. Soon, all would be targeted by agents from the FBI’s international corruption division as well as federal prosecutors from Honolulu to New York. 

Low, of course, wanted "assistance" from the Trump administration to drop the embezzlement charges against him. But the list goes on and on about how Michel, perhaps through his own braggadocio about his political “connections,” became easy prey to become ensnared in this web of “espionage” and corruption. In his mind he wasn’t “stealing” anything, just providing services for a “friend.” 

And he wasn’t the only one receiving “gifts” from Low for being his “friend.” Kim Kardashian received a bag of over $300,000 in cash, supermodel Miranda Kerr received $8 million in jewelry, and DiCaprio received “donations” to his charity and  money to make his film—and who knows how many others Low lavished money upon. 

But it was Michel’s dealings with Chinese intelligence agents that really got him into the crosshairs of the FBI. Despite his conviction in court, his defense attorney seems to believe that the guilty verdicts will be overturned because he was just a “regular guy” who was in way over his head and had no clue about the kind of trouble he had gotten himself into. Michel thought he was just helping “friends” who were just asking for “advice” or a “good word” with people in government, and being paid whatever the going rate was for that.

And we can also see this as how certain politicians, particularly Republicans in regard to Trump's corrupt behavior and in the aftermath of January 6, have clouded people's mind what is or isn't "corrupt."  At the very least it has made it  difficult for “ordinary” people to understand the difference between ordinary "gifts" and bribery.

And of course with someone like Michel, everything is “relative.” What he was doing was, perhaps in his mind, was just something that people with “fame” and “influence” did. After all, he wasn't doing a drug deal, stealing money or arranging a “hit,” it was just a quid pro quo that wasn’t really hurting anyone. 

But he was arrogant enough to believe that he had “power” to be an influencer, or to help others gain access to influencers, and at this particular time dealings with the Chinese are certainly suspect. He was getting himself involved into intergovernmental intrigue in which he had no “license” to do, which could be seen as interference in intergovernmental negotiations for personal gain. But did he actually see it that way?

It almost sounds like the plot of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, but unlike for the usual protagonist, there was no way out of Michel’s predicament, unlike what the prosecutors offered DiCaprio, who had gained the most with his association with Low—but was at least smart enough not to get involved with the Chinese.

Of course there is the question as to why the mainstream broadcast media has largely ignored the case. Why should we be surprised when certain social interest groups are being shielded from the revelations of such crimes, or for which both political parties could face embarrassment?