Names and faces
■ Kaley Cuoco announced Saturday that she gave birth to her first child. “The Big Bang Theory” star said on Instagram she and fellow actor Tom Pelphrey now have a daughter named Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey. “The new light of our lives!” Cuoco, 37, posted, along with a series of pictures of the baby, who was born Thursday. “We are overjoyed and grateful for this little miracle.” Last year, she began dating Pelphrey, and in October, they announced they were expecting a child together. It’s also the first child for Pelphrey, 40, who has acted primarily in soap operas, including “Guiding Light” and “As The World Turns.”
■ Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a founding member of the 1990s hiphop group the Fugees, was enmeshed in political conspiracies involving millions of dollars in foreign money under two U.S. presidents, federal prosecutors said as his trial got underway Thursday. The Department of Justice claims Michel conspired with Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low. The fugitive financer is accused of masterminding a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions from the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB. Looted money paid for jewelry and luxury art and helped finance films like “The Wolf of Wall Street.” During the 2012 presidential campaign, prosecutors allege Low directed more than $20 million to Michel, who concealed its origin by giving the money to straw donors to give to the Obama campaign. He later tried to lean on the donors to keep them from talking to investigators, Lockhart said. In 2017, prosecutors say, the Grammy-winning rapper worked with a Republican “fixer” to try and shut down a U.S. investigation into Low and embezzlement from the Malaysian fund. He’s also accused of pushing the Trump administration to send a Chinese person who had fled to the U.S. back to China. “It almost worked,” prosecutor Nicole Rae Lockhart said. “The defendant wanted money and was willing to break any laws necessary to get paid.” Michel’s lawyers have previously said he is innocent and “extremely disappointed” in the charges, but the defense decided to wait to give its opening statement in the trial that’s expected to last weeks. Low has maintained his innocence.