According to the New York Times, on Friday, former Justice Department employee George Higginbotham admitted to conspiring to lie to banks about the source of tens of millions of dollars he funneled into the United States from the Malaysian financier Jho Low. According to the plea, the scheme was meant to lobby the Trump administration to try to end an investigation related to the embezzlement of billions of dollars from a Malaysian state-owned fund, the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad fund, also known as 1MDB. According to the papers, the scheme's plan was to help Jho deflect efforts by American authorities to seize assets bought with money Jho was accused of siphoning from 1MDB.

In the plea, Higginbotham stated that he, Pras Michel of the Fugees, and Elliott Broidy, a Los Angeles-based businessman who was a finance vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign and inauguration committees, arranged for millions of dollars of Jho Low’s money to be transferred to a law firm owned by Mr. Broidy’s wife to pay them to try to end the 1MDB investigation. Allegedly, Mr. Broidy traveled to Thailand in May 2017 to meet with Mr. Low and Pras, and he indicated “that he would sit down with Jho Low’s legal team and figure out the best way to get to a settlement on the 1MDB matters.” Mr. Broidy was alleged to have received $8 million for his involvement.

The figure was originally supposed to be $15 million, but apparently, Pras negotiated it down to $8 million, acting on behalf of Jho. A draft agreement called for a $75 million “success fee” to be paid to Mr. Broidy if the investigation was resolved within 180 days, or $50 million if it was resolved within 365 days. Pras' compensation, or how he is involved with Jho, is currently unknown. however, the papers allege that Pras has been working with and on behalf of Jho for some time. In 2009, Mr. Brody plead guilty to an unrelated pension fund bribery case. Charges have not been filed against Broidy or Pras yet, though analysts expect charges to be filed soon.