Pras Michel (left), of The Fugees, is suing his groupmate Lauryn Hill in federal court for fraud and breach of contract over their canceled tour.
In a lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, Michel accused Hill of grossly mismanaging the 2023 tour. Michel’s lawsuit claims that Hill secretly siphoned off money from the tour guarantees. He accused Hill of breach of contract, accounting and refusal to permit an audit of the Fugees’ tour.
Hill abruptly canceled the tour in November 2023, citing “serious vocal strain.”
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The lawsuit claims the 2023 Fugees tour should have been “a huge commercial success, since most of shows for the entire arena size tour were sold out in advance.” He said Hill controlled the tour budget “that was so bloated with unnecessary and, most likely fictitious, expenses, that it seemed designed to lose money.”
Michel says Hill turned down lucrative offers for the group to perform, including a $5 million offer for a gig at Coachella.
“Hill’s arrogance was again demonstrated when she unilaterally rejected a $5 Million offer [to play Coachella]. The reason was that her ego was bruised since the group No Doubt would be receiving top billing over The Fugees the night of their show,” the complaint read. “Hill never told Pras about the offer or that she had was rejected it. Pras only learned about it when it was too late, after Hill, in an astonishing display of hubris, asked Pras if he would agree to perform a few Fugees songs for free as the opening act for her son, ‘YG’ Marley, who was slated to perform at the same Coachella festival.”
Michel, who was once a billionaire who drive $350,000 cars, needed the tour money because he is still paying lawyers to keep him out of prison while he appeals a federal conviction.
A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Michel for conspiracy, failing to register as an agent of China, and witness tampering in April 2023.
The lawsuit stated, Hill exploited Michel’s precarious situation in which he needed money for mounting legal fees. Michel was named as a co-defendant of “Wolf of Wall Street” financier Jho Low, who allegedly stole $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Low remains on the run and is believed to be living somewhere in China, spending Malaysia’s stolen billions.
The U.S. government froze Michel’s bank accounts that once contained hundreds of millions of dollars. He is now broke.
In his appeal paperwork, Michel blamed his former lawyer for using AI to write his closing arguments during trial. Michel is seeking a new trial.
