{"id":26925,"date":"2012-10-15T09:45:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T13:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=26925"},"modified":"2012-10-16T08:20:47","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T12:20:47","slug":"wyclefs-haiti-charity-all-song-and-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/10\/wyclefs-haiti-charity-all-song-and-dance","title":{"rendered":"Wyclef’s Haiti Charity: All Song And Dance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop producer and political activist, is facing a wave of criticism in the wake of his charity organization, Y\u00e9le, misappropriating nearly $16 million in donations.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times, a closer examination of Mr Jean’s charity revealed that millions of dollars raised for earthquake victims in Haiti was instead used for Y\u00e9le’s $600,000 headquarters, employee salaries, consultants’ fees, travel expenses, materials for homes that were never built, and for accountants dealing with the charity’s legal troubles.<\/p>\n

A forensic audit examining Y\u00e9le’s financial situation found over $250,000 of the charity’s $3 million raised from 2005 to 2009 helped fund illegitimate benefits for Mr Jean and other Y\u00e9le board and staff members; from $24,000 for Mr. Jean’s chauffeur services to $30,000 for a private jet that transported actress Lindsay Lohan to a benefit that only raised $66,000.<\/p>\n

Before the earthquake, Y\u00e9le’s assets were measured at a meager $37,000. Following the devastation, Mr Jean was able to successfully raise $1 million in 24 hours using Twitter and other social media networks. Y\u00e9le also benefited alongside the assistance of more reputable organizations like Unicef.<\/p>\n

However, two years ago, Y\u00e9le squandered $9 million in salaries, consultants’ fees, travel expenses, and costs related to building their offices and warehouse. In comparison to a similar celebrity charitable organization, Sean Penn’s J\/P Haitian Relief Organisation spent only $130,000 on the same expenses. Y\u00e9le also spent $375,000 for \u201clandscaping\u201d, $37,000 for rent at Mr. Jean\u2019s Manhattan recording studio, and $470,440 on its own food and beverages.<\/p>\n

Y\u00e9le, which is a word coined by Mr. Jean to mean “cry for freedom”, was founded in 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A closer look at Mr Jean’s charity revealed that millions raised for Haiti earthquake victims was used for Y\u00e9le’s $600,000 headquarters, employee salaries, consultants, materials for homes never built, and to clean up the charity’s legal troubles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[61,112],"class_list":["post-26925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-charity","tag-haiti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}