{"id":2825,"date":"2012-10-12T09:35:35","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T09:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2012-10-12T09:37:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T09:37:16","slug":"a-rappers-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=2825","title":{"rendered":"A rapper’s charity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A rapper's tears<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop celebrity, complained when he faced questions about his charity\u2019s financial record and ability to handle what eventually amounted to $16 million in donations.<\/p>\n

Portraying himself as persecuted like Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Jean, 40, writes with indignation about insinuations that he had used his charity, Y\u00e9le, for personal gain. He says he did not need to \u2014 \u201cI have a watch collection worth $500,000\u201d\u2014 and that doubters will someday understand \u201cY\u00e9le is Haiti\u2019s greatest asset and ally.\u201d<\/p>\n

But on his book tour for \u201cPurpose: An Immigrant\u2019s Story,\u201d Jean neglects to mention two key facts: a continuing New York attorney general\u2019s investigation has already found financial improprieties at Y\u00e9le, and the charity effectively went out of business last month, leaving a trail of debts, unfinished projects and broken promises.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had depended on Y\u00e9le,\u201d said Diaoly Estim\u00e9, whose orphanage features a wall painting of Mr. Jean and his wife, \u201cthese kids would all be dead by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as Y\u00e9le is besieged by angry creditors, an examination of the charity indicates that millions in donations for earthquake victims went to its own offices, salaries, consultants\u2019 fees and travel, to Mr. Jean\u2019s brother-in-law for projects never realized, to materials for temporary houses never built and to accountants dealing with its legal troubles.<\/p>\n

On the ground in Haiti, little lasting trace of Y\u00e9le\u2019s presence can be discerned. The walled country estate leased for its headquarters, on which the charity lavished $600,000, is deserted. Y\u00e9le\u2019s street cleaning crews have been disbanded. The Y\u00e9le-branded tents and tarps have mostly disintegrated; one camp leader said they had not seen Y\u00e9le, which is based in New York, since Jean was disqualified as a presidential candidate because he lives in Saddle River, N.J., not Haiti.<\/p>\n

This summer, the charity foundered.<\/p>\n

At the end of August, Derek Q. Johnson, Y\u00e9le\u2019s chief executive, announced his resignation to supporters.<\/p>\n

His resignation came after Jean declined to accept a settlement proposed by the attorney general covering the charity\u2019s pre-earthquake activities, and he hired Avi Schick, a lawyer who had been a member of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman\u2019s transition team.<\/p>\n

The settlement would have required Jean and the two other Y\u00e9le founders to pay $600,000 in restitution \u201cto remedy the waste of the foundation\u2019s assets.\u201d It also would have required Y\u00e9le to pay for a forensic audit of its post-disaster expenses, as it had done for its pre-earthquake finances, and to start \u201cwinding down its affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010, Y\u00e9le spent $9 million and half went to travel, to salaries and consultants\u2019 fees and to expenses related to their offices and warehouse. In contrast, another celebrity charity, Sean Penn\u2019s J\/P Haitian Relief Organization, spent $13 million with only 10 percent going to those costs.<\/p>\n

Though Mr. Penn\u2019s group spent $43,000 on office-related expenses, Y\u00e9le spent $1.4 million, including $375,000 for \u201clandscaping\u201d and $37,000 for rent to Mr. Jean\u2019s Manhattan recording studio. Y\u00e9le spent $470,440 on its own food and beverages.<\/p>\n

Some of Y\u00e9le\u2019s programming money went to projects that never came to fruition: temporary homes for which it prepaid $93,000; a medical center to have been housed in geodesic domes for which it paid $146,000; the revitalization of a plaza in the Cit\u00e9 Soleil slum, where supposed improvements that cost $230,000 are nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n

In its relief operation, Y\u00e9le operated outside the coordination system set up by other nongovernment groups; it did not want to be burdened by rules and meetings, Mr. Locke said in a 2010 interview.<\/p>\n

Other organizations focused on providing concrete services like sanitation or health care.<\/p>\n

Y\u00e9le chose to work more broadly than deeply. It supplied food, water and supplies to what it said were dozens of tent camps. Julie Schindall, then spokeswoman for Oxfam America, called it a \u201cdump and run strategy.\u201d Mr. Penn told The New York Times in 2010, \u201cMy impression is that Y\u00e9le is at the service of Wyclef Jean and his reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop celebrity, complained when he faced questions about his charity\u2019s financial record and ability to handle what eventually amounted to $16 million in donations. Portraying himself as persecuted like Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Jean, 40, writes with indignation about insinuations that he had used his charity, Y\u00e9le, for … Continue reading “A rapper’s charity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[1776,1774,1772,1773,1771,1775],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-charity","tag-earthquake","tag-haiti","tag-oldest-black-republic","tag-wyclef-jean","tag-yele"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/wyclefjean.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}