Lauryn Hill sued for fraud and breach of contract by Pras Michel de Fugees after cancellation of Miseducation anniversary tour

In the lawsuit, Michel claims that Hill and his touring company MLH had “complete control over the business aspects of the tour.” Hill responded by calling Michel’s lawsuit “meritless.”

Sarah Morris/Getty; Jared Tarin/Getty

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• Ms. Lauryn Hill was sued by Pras Michel, a member of The Fugees.

• Michel is suing Hill over allegations of fraud and breach of contract regarding their shortened 2023 tour and has quietly canceled the Bad education anniversary tour in 2024

• In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Hill called the lawsuit “meritless” and “full of false allegations and unwarranted attacks.”

Ms. Lauryn Hill was sued by Fugees group member Pras Michel over allegations of fraud and breach of contract during their shortened 2023 run and quietly canceled the Bad education anniversary tour in 2024.

In the complaint filed Tuesday, Oct. 1, which also names Hill’s MLH touring company, Michel, 51, alleges that the singer and her MLH touring company had “complete control over the business aspects of the tour, which allowed him to have a total lack of transparency on the management of the tour, including the management of money.

Other claims listed in the filing include fraud in inducement, breach of fiduciary duty, accounting and refusal to authorize an audit of the Fugees’ tour.

Related: Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees Unveil New Tour Dates for Miseducation Anniversary

According to the lawsuit, Michel claims Hill, 49, and MLH neglected to pay all of the expenses she had budgeted for in regards to the Fugees’ 2023 tour, including hotel and credit card bills, musicians and crew, which he says are always “due and payable, in whole or in part.” Michel also claims that Hill’s management of the 2023 tour “was actually a veiled, underhanded attempt to score big.”

The complaint alleges that the 2023 tour should have been “a huge commercial success, since most of the shows on the entire arena-sized tour were sold out in advance.” But Michel says the tour budget “was so bloated with unnecessary and, most likely, fictitious expenses that it seemed designed to lose money,” and he ended up empty-handed. The 2023 tour was cut short when Hill decided to cancel the second half of the run in November 2023, saying she was suffering from “severe vocal strain”.

Mathew Tsang/Getty

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In the lawsuit, Michel alleges that Hill has “narcissistic tendencies” and includes anecdotes that claim so, including one about how Hill turned down $5 million to perform at Coachella because “his ego was bruised” when No Doubt received first place.

“Hill’s arrogance was further displayed when she unilaterally rejected a $5 million offer (to perform at Coachella). The reason was that his ego was bruised since the band No Doubt would be headlining the Fugees the night of their show,” the complaint reads. “Hill never told Pras about the offer nor the fact that she had rejected it until it was too late, after Hill, in an astonishing display of hubris, asked Pras if he would interpret for free. some Fugees songs as the opening act for his son, “YG” Marley, who was scheduled to perform at the same Coachella festival.

After a lackluster solo tour, Michel believes Hill proposed to bandmate Wyclef Jean the idea of ​​doing a 25th anniversary Miseducation tour with The Fugees in May or June 2023, which he claims she realized would help. was “her only chance to sell tickets to shows.” in arena-sized venues and feed his insatiable ego,” the suit states.

Meanwhile, Michel was in the middle of a four-year legal battle with the US Department of Justice as a co-defendant alongside financier Jho Low, who allegedly stole $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, known as 1MDB, and he alleges Hill exploited his “vulnerability,” according to the complaint. (In April 2023, Michel was convicted of conspiring to help China influence the U.S. government. He was convicted of witness tampering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and acting as a unregistered agent of a foreign government, reported The New York Times.)

Due to the tour’s cancellation, Michel struggled to pay his legal fees and was left with almost a million dollars because, he claimed, “Hill was taking 40% of the tour guarantees and net profits of the tour for herself, leaving the remaining 60%. to be shared equally between Hill, Michel and Wyclef,” according to the suit.

Scott Dudelson/Getty

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Without disclosing it to Michel, Hill reportedly reached a new deal with Live Nation for a Fugees tour that would begin in August 2024. Ticket sales for the show were struggling, which Michel blamed on Hill, who he said, ” took way too long.” a lot of time to close the deal with Live Nation (and) there was little to no marketing for the tour, and not enough time between the announcement and the first concert date to make sufficient advance sales to justify the tour.

Due to this, the tour was canceled in August. At the time, Hill shared a statement that read: “Last year I suffered an injury that required some of my shows to be postponed. Unfortunately, some media’s penchant for sensationalism and clickbait headlines apparently created a narrative that affected ticket sales for the North American leg of the tour.

Additionally, Michel claimed that Hill’s “habit of arriving late to shows” had “tarnished the Fugees brand.”

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Hill called Michel’s lawsuit “baseless” and “full of false allegations and unwarranted attacks.”

“In particular, he omits that he was overpaid for the last tour and that he failed to repay substantial loans that I had made as a gesture of goodwill,” Hill said. “Last year’s tour was organized to celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary. The Bad Education of Lauryn Hill. It was planned whether or not the Fugees were involved. »

Hill added that the 2023 tour “was expanded to include the Fugees because I found out Pras was in trouble and would need money to help his legal defense.”

“Pras received a $3 million advance for the tour, which he said he needed to pay his legal fees,” Hill said. “Wyclef and I deferred our full advances to make sure he had what he needed and could go. I covered most of the tour expenses, as the majority of the tour’s advance tour had gone to Pras An agreement was put in place to guarantee repayment of the money advanced to them, Pras has not repaid the money advanced to them and is currently in breach of this agreement. .

Hill claims she “absorbed most of the expenses” of the tour itself since the Fugees’ set used the same production and her tour, band, production and set-up were already underway.

Gotham/WireImage

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Related: Fugees’ Pras Michel Shares Frustrations With Lauryn Hill On Diss Track Amid Miseducation Anniversary Tour Cancellation

“Pras just had to show up and play,” she said.

Hill added: “I’m not in the business of kicking anyone, especially when they’re down, which is why I haven’t responded to this day.”

In the statement, Hill also claimed that she “was not in Pras’ life when he decided to make the unfortunate decision that led to his current legal problems.”

“I did not advise him to make this decision and therefore I am in no way responsible for his decision and its consequences, even though I took it upon myself to help him. Despite his attacks, I am still compassionate and I hope things work out for him,” she said.

Formed in the late 1980s in New Jersey, The Fugees are known as one of the most influential hip-hop groups of the 1990s. Their latest album The scorereleased in 1996, was certified seven times platinum by the RIAA.

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