While many have come together to aid relief for the victims of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, Wyclef Jean has been the ambassador. Through Yele Haiti Foundation, Clef’s charitable organization, $2 million dollars has been raised through text messaging. An organization which has now been called into question.
Friday, The Smoking Gun released a report, claiming that faulty record keeping and documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service reflect previous funds circulated within the non-profit organization have gone towards rent, production services and appearance fees. The report also revealed that 2008 was the first time that the organization had filed tax returns and only representing 2005, 2006 and most recently, 2009.
The Haitian born rapper has not addressed the allegations at this time. However, even with the organization’s skepticism, donations continue to pour in. Many Yele supporters argue that The Smoking Gun calling Wyclef’s organization into question is shady, particularly when the Red Cross organization has a history of corruption and financial records unaccounted for, as well as misusing funds from the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.
Wyclef, who arrived in Haiti on Thursday, spent the entire day with his wife picking up dead bodies and described the scene as “Apocalypse.” He also stated that there are at least 400,000 to 500,000 people who could potentially die.
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Wyclef is also scheduled to co-host a telethon to raise money for the victims of Haiti alongside actor George Clooney and CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The two hour “Hope For Haiti” telethon will take place January 22 and air live, commerical free on MTV, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, VH1 and CMT. One hundred percent of the donations will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation.
