Fugees Rapper Pras Michel Must Repay $6.5M, Judge Says, But Didn’t Commit Fraud

A federal judge has ended a long-running fraud lawsuit against Fugees rapper Pras Michel over allegations that he sold off part of his music catalog to Harbourview after using those same rights as collateral on a $6.5 million loan.

In a decision issued Thursday, Judge Steve C. Jones issued a final ruling that was something of an unpleasant victory for Pras — ordering him to repay the money he borrowed from an Atlanta finance firm called Open on Sunday, but refusing to go further and hold him liable for more serious accusations.

Though the judge ruled that Michel had clearly breached the loan contract — something the rapper had never contested — he also dismissed accusations that Pras had defrauded the company.

“This is a simple breach of contract case,” the judge wrote. “Open on Sunday loaned Michel $6,500,000. This loan was collateralized with future royalties from Michel’s music copyright catalogue. When the loan came due, Michel did not pay the balance owed.”

Open On Sunday had argued that Michel made knowingly false statements, including texts where he told the company, “I’m not selling my assets to any third party,” that he allegedly sent after he had already sold them off. As a result of those statements, Open On Sunday claimed it didn’t foreclose on the music rights when it could have.

But Judge Jones said the company couldn’t prove it had been legally damaged beyond the money it hadn’t been repaid. The claims about failing to foreclose were not enough, the judge said, “especially when Open on Sunday has not — and cannot — quantify this loss.”

In a statement to Billboard on Friday, Michel’s attorney Robert S. Meloni said he “considered the court’s ruling a win for Pras.” He stressed that the judge had sided with Michel on the contested fraud allegations and that Pras already agreed he needed to repay the debt: “He conceded he owes that money … before the lawsuit was even filed.”

An attorney for Open On Sunday did not immediately return a request for comment.

Along with Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, Michel was a founding member of The Fugees, a hip-hop trio who rose to fame in the 1990s with hits like “Killing Me Softly,” “Ready or Not,” and “Fu-Gee-La.” After splitting up in 1998, the three each had successful solo careers and mostly stayed separate until recent years, when they have attempted multiple reunion tours.

In 2019, Pras was hit with sweeping federal criminal charges, including accusations that he funneled money from a Malaysian financier to Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and then later tried to influence an extradition case on behalf of China. In April 2023, he was convicted on 10 counts including conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as a foreign agent.

Michel is also currently embroiled in litigation against Hill, whom he claims defrauded him over the Fugee’s shortened 2023 tour and was behind the abrupt cancellation of a 2024 tour. Hill has called the case, which remains pending, a “baseless lawsuit” that’s “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks.”

In 2022, Michel was hit with the lawsuit from Open on Sunday, an Atlanta-based company that says it provides “catalog financing solutions,” including purchasing music rights from songwriters and artists in return for upfront payments.

In its court filings, the group said it had struck such a deal with Michel in 2021, agreeing to pay the star $5.1 million to buy out the royalty stream from his record deal with Sony Music. But shortly after inking that deal, Open on Sunday allegedly learned that there were “undisclosed tax liens” on those royalties that would prevent them from being paid out.

To resolve the issue, Open claimed that it converted the asset sale into a short-term loan, which would give Michel $6.5 million but need to quickly be paid back. As collateral for the debt, Michel allegedly offered up a priority interest in the same royalties that he’d previously tried to sell.

But Pras never paid that money back — and he then allegedly sold off that same collateral to Harbourview in a 2022 catalog sale. In a juicy twist, Open on Sunday’s lawsuit claimed Michel had pulled off that deal by presenting Harbourview with forged documents that falsely showed the smaller company had released its lien on the royalties.

(Harbourview was initially named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but was voluntarily dropped from the case in 2023. A spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.)

Thursday’s ruling ended those allegations in anticlimactic fashion. In a brief opinion, Judge Jones said Pras obviously owed the money since he had never argued otherwise: “In his own words, Michel ‘breached the loan agreement.’” But he dismissed the lawsuit’s four other counts, including common-law fraud and conspiracy to defraud through forgery.

“Open on Sunday must show that actual damages, not simply nominal damages, flowed from the fraud alleged,” the judge wrote. “But Open on Sunday cannot.”