Wyclef Jean Press Conference VIDEO: Musician Tears Up, Defends Yele Haiti

Wyclef Jean became emotional toward the end of his press conference today, in response to criticism that his organization, Yele Haiti, hasn't been completely forthcoming about its use of donations.

Wyclef began by discussing his history as a Haitian, moving to the United States and living the "American dream." He talked about his father and the widespread damage in Haiti before addressing the allegations against Yele Haiti.

"Have we made mistakes before? Yes. Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefits? Absolutely not....Yele's books are open and transparent and we have been given a clean bill of health by an external auditor every year since we started."

He directed that further questions be address to the president of Yele Haiti, who accepted questions after Wyclef's speech.

The rapper and singer became emotional near the end of his statement:

"Myself, the reality is, my people are dying and I have to go back to the ground in a few days for a mission relief. Now if you don't mind, my people in Haiti are watching this. So I gotta talk to them in they own language."

Watch Wyclef's part of the press conference below:

Comments

[InfosolutionWiz]

09:20 AM on 01/22/2010

Long Before any body gives a rats ass about the plight of people in Haiti, Wyclef Jean has been there. I attended 2 concerts in downtown Miami in 2004 and 2006. In separate cases during Wyclef performance a woman with a man translating for her interrupt Wyclef’s performance to ask him for financial help. Whyclef bring the woman on stage to tell her heart wrenching story which he pledge to help her get back on her feet. You NEVER see this on the news. I find it hard to believe that Whyclef would steal from his charity. The Big charities don’t want any competition period. The American red cross have a C+ ratings in California and a B- in Kansas according to the better business bureau. These are POOR ratings for a charity in my book. ALL of these charity skim money for personal use don’t fool yourself for a minute. MOST Non profits are poorly run and manage, 98% of them would be bankrupt if they operate for profit.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

09:32 PM on 01/19/2010

Jean has had a lot of fundraisers attended by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and other movie stars–how much of the $79,126 the charity raised in 2007 was contributed by him. Even if he contributed the whole thing, it’s peanuts, since the foundation pays him and his partner, Jerry DuPlessis –they are both officers of the charity–$31,200 in rent, each year, in 2006 and 2007, for using office space in a building they own through their company, Platinum Sound, which owns and operates recording studios. Their excuse is that they are renting the offices “below market value.” But why aren’t they donating that space–you know, the same way they are asking all of us, who aren’t wealthy pop stars, to donate to Haiti?

And, then, there’s an additional $100,000 paid to Platinum Sound in 2006, which isn’t explained at all. Add to that the $250,000 Jean’s foundation paid to Telemax, S.A., in which, the 2006 tax form says, Jean and his partner DuPlessis own a controlling interest, to buy airtime and production services. If you add it all up, Jean and his partner made more money from the charity in 2006–a total of $391,200–than the actual intended recipients did–or $324,500. Again, they use the excuse that the price paid was “below market value.” Uh-huh. Sadly, that excuse doesn’t hold water when, in fact, 38% of the money spent by the charity that year went to line Wyclef Jean’s and his partner, Jerry DuPlessis’ pockets.

[Cloud30]

01:59 AM on 01/21/2010

CNN has reviewed Wyclef's tax records and found little wrong :

Here's the link : http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/18/news/international/wyclef_haiti/index.htm?section=money_latest&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Btw it's called a Benefit concert buddy...benefit concerts intended for the sole purpose of raising more money. In other words say the Red Cross threw a benefit Concert...they'd have similar costs. Actually their costs would probably be higher, and being that Wyclef put a million of his own money into the organization, I don't see the problem

If people had actually read the Washington Post article all the way through they would have read that they never actually completely accused him of wrong doing, saying that there may be nothing wrong. And it turns out there wasn't...

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

03:18 AM on 01/21/2010

first off CNN said no such thing.

second, much more aboy Jean taking money from Yele has come out on Gawker and Smoking Gun.

for example:

At Monday’s press conference, Jean and Yéle president Hugh Locke reporters that Jean founded the charity with his own money, a fact contradicted by internal Yéle documents acquired by Gawker that also suggest that a tumultuous history of the charity:

The documents, which include internal emails and detailed financial statements for 2005 — the year Yele was founded — show the internal chaos that has afflicted the organization since its founding. Its first executive director, Sanjay Rawal, resigned in October 2005 because, his resignation letter stated, “the sense of entitlement” and “lack of financial commitment from the board”—which consisted at the time of Jean, his cousin Jerry Duplessis, and SAC Capital Advisers trader Seth Kanegis—were “suffocating” Yele Haiti. Another e-mail obtained by Gawker, written by Yele’s current executive director Hugh Locke in 2007, announced that both Locke and his deputy were resigning due to a ethical and business concerns that had caused a “crisis” at Yele Haiti.

We asked Locke last night in an interview if he could provide details on precisely when, and in what increments, Jean made his $1 million in donations. He replied, “I honestly don’t know how to break that out, and I’m not interested in doing so.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

09:18 PM on 01/19/2010

Normally, a charity is considered to be an illegitimate charity if more than 25% of the money raised goes to expenses. That’s the standard guideline. But more than 50% of Jean’s charity’s money goes to pay consultants and caterers at parties, etc. In fact, only 47% of the money goes to charity. In 2007, the last year for which taxes were filed (in summer 2009), the charity spent $569,050, and only $270,000 of it went to “program services” in Haiti. In 2006, it’s even worse, with the charity spending $1,038,528 in total, and only $324,500 going to charity in Haiti. That means that only 31%–or less than a third–of the money spent that year went to charity.

But the biggest joke is 2005, in which only $1,281 (a tiny fraction of one percent) went to charity in Haiti, out of $549,991 spent on “expenses”–consultants, catering, travel office expenses, etc. A “hurricane relief benefit” held that year in New York raised $50,000, but cost $40,301 to put on, netting less than $10,000 in revenue for the charity.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

08:24 PM on 01/19/2010

Jean's press conferance was very, very, very disappointing - no one smart got to Jean - and Jean is obviously not too smart himself.

Everyone covers that he teard up = but I watched it live - he also told a series of crass jokes to his friends in the room and bragged about being the biggest thing in music and in LA back in 1996. Dumb.

Oh yeah - and at one point he inferred that the people of Haiti would follow him like a new Moses!!

He was totally in denial about the misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars and never showed PROOF that he had donated the million dollars that he said he had. Wonderwhy?

the director of yele, Hugh Locke, is an obvious fraud. (whose resume claims he is a leading member of the (gay hating) " b'hai faith" (which many consider a cult)

Locke actually said that wyclef jean must at the center of any world response to the haitian crisis!

Locke, who obviously thinks the world rotates around Jean's celebrity, recited a list of Yeles past works (none of which added up to the millions raised) also tried to imply that Jean got President Clinton appointed to his UN position as ambassador to Haiti,

Jean was far from impressive. ,but he was quite disturbingly flip at times,
and way too self reverential for comfort..
.he obviously is as impressed by himself as Locke is.

This is much worse than i expected. This is going

[Andrew FingerlickingGree]

09:40 AM on 01/19/2010

Various charities do various things.... leading charities such as the Red Cross cannot possible do everything or help all the people in need.
No charity is perfect and I would rather give to a grassroots charity such a Yele Haiti and Partners in Health. The Red Cross and other charities does a great job but bureaucratic red tapes can make these charities less effective than grassroots charities.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

03:22 AM on 01/21/2010

Comparing Yele in any way tothe Red Cross is absurd.

You are obviously a huge fan of his who wants his organization to be seen in a less critical way. I can relate since I am from NJ and if there is ever an earthquake there, I only want Springsteen or Bon Jovi to lead the relief efforts. Nobody knows search and rescue and disaster response like a famous musician with local roots.

[AnglScarlett]

07:39 AM on 01/19/2010

My brother knows that I've been donating to Haiti relief funds, and he texted me about this. He is of the opinion that donations are wasted. We hold different worldviews. Anyway, as soon as I heard about this I was very suspicious...of the people making the accusations. I believe that white people, especially conservative white people, but not solely conservative white people, resist the idea of black people helping other black people. It's like, they are in love with the idea of the big white daddy coming in to save the day, or, in other cases, they simply believe that all black people with money are thieves and are corrupt. Either way, it's racism that is at the root of this, which I smelled as soon as I first heard about it.

Last week I donated to the american red cross and to unicef (especially for the children) and this week I just made a donation to doctors without borders, because I know they'll use it well and humanely. Next week I will donate to Wyclef's foundation because of this. That is guarnateed.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

09:14 PM on 01/19/2010

its not racism God.

its the greed and incompetence of the people of Yele.

Some years spent ober 89 percent of what they raised in the US on themselvesw with only a pittance going to help the people. They TOOK 400 grand out of a 1 million dollar gift!

Worry more about the poor people of haiti than about the reputation of a rich celeb - if justice matters to you.

And listen more to your brother, he seems to not be on the right track.

[Doc0976]

10:53 AM on 01/21/2010

Thank you AnglScarlett.

I've noticed that certain people posting on here have a very fixed agenda, ensuring that they smear this young man every chance they get. And yes, the scrutiny has been laser-focused on Wyclef and I believe that your rationale is strong and merited.

It seems as if certain people believe they have the corner on donations and charity. It seems that the campaign to smear this young man is being done to divert attention and fund AWAY from an organization that has the most cultural credibility when it comes to Haiti.

But yeah, we're all playing the race card.

[Pamela Braide]

07:16 AM on 01/19/2010

Yele is the only organization I will donate to. I impressed with the alliance it swiftly formed with other charities quickly at the onset of the crisis to be more efficient in delivery. The fact that they are Haitians is very important to me.

Fighting for funding is the uglier side of the charity world. This a nasty example.

[Katco]

02:13 PM on 01/19/2010

Agreed. The fact that Yele was targeted, when it has been widely reported that there were questionable practices by the Red Cross over many years, is outrageous. The high salaries, bait and switch donation practices, discrimination... The Red Cross raised around $50 million for the victims of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake in San Francisco, but it's estimated that only $10 million was ever turned over to the victims. A congressional investigation revealed that--though it had promised that all 9/11 donations would all go to victims' families--the Red Cross held back more than half of the $543 million.

See for yourself, check out this story: The truth about the Red Cross
http://socialistworker.org/2005-2/562/562_04_RedCross.shtml

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

03:36 AM on 01/21/2010

from todays smoking gun:

The payment of $100,000 to a firm owned by Jean) "was not our finest hour," said Yele President John Locke, who promised that the group would be "more appropriate" in the future.

Locke's mea culpas, though, did little to explain Jean's unique way of doling out foundation funds to himself. For example:

* Locke yesterday claimed that the $100,000 paid to a Jean company for his performance at a fundraiser included expenses associated with that gig (like "background musicians" and "backline" costs). Locke had previously told the Associated Press that Jean had only pocketed $25,000, with the $75,000 balance going to pay for "backup singers." Jean, though, has toured with a single female backup singer, most recently his sister Melky (who founded her own Haiti charity, the Carma Foundation, in January 2008). "I'm not saying he didn't benefit from it," said Locke, who has sought to minimize the singer's windfall.

* While the musician chose to bank $100,000 in foundation funds for a single performance, the group's tax return asserts that the fee was "substantially less than market value." This claim--that Jean and his partner provided discounted rates on office space, booking fees, and $250,000 in television production services--is supported by, well, nothing. Ditto Jean's claim that he put $1 million of his own money into the charity.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

03:37 AM on 01/21/2010

* In light of the assertion by Jean's representatives that the distribution of funds to a foundation's board member was a routine occurrence, TSG conducted a comparison of the business practices of Jean's group with those of 40 not-for-profit groups founded or closely affiliated with celebrities. Like Jean's foundation, each of the 40 groups has filed tax returns detailing their income and expenses, records that are available for examination/downloading on guidestar.org, the leading online clearinghouse for information on non-profit groups. In most cases, the site offers the last three IRS returns filed by an organization.

A review of these tax returns shows that not one of the 40 organizations has paid a penny to a celebrity for any service rendered--even at a discounted rate--for the group.

This list includes foundations formed by or connected to DiCaprio, Timberlake, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Madonna, Tiger Woods, Alicia Keys, Derek Jeter, David Letterman, LeBron James, Jay Leno, Michael J. Fox, Barbra Streisand, Bill Gates, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Martin Scorsese, Michael Douglas, Steven Spielberg, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Danny DeVito, Russell Simmons, Dave Matthews, Richard Gere, Ron Howard, Edward Norton, Jane Fonda, Stevie Nicks, Sharon Stone, Kirk Douglas, Bruce Willis, Peyton Manning, Kelsey Grammer, David Geffen, Gloria Estefan, Stephen King, and Tom Brokaw.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

09:15 PM on 01/19/2010

no9t 1 cent of money given to Yele since the quake has gone to Haiti,

Not one cent.

[KayAch7]

12:09 PM on 01/20/2010

OMG!!!! You're such a hater a dude!!!

[Katco]

03:30 PM on 01/20/2010

You just don't like a black musician, who happens to be Haitian, who happens to want a better life for the people of Haiti. Let's face it, you're racist.

[johnnyd447]

03:12 AM on 01/19/2010

I support YELE Haiti, today and forever more! No one ever questions the Red Cross, or any other white charitable so called respectable organization. Secondly, the head of the Red Cross As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster, keep these facts in mind:

Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross... salary for year ending 06/30/03 was $651,957 plus expenses.

Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary, plus numerous expense benefits.

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion dollar organization.

No further comment necessary . and the White Run Media wish to Perform a media hit job on Yele... Come on if they're charitable organization than why the large salary to white CEO's?

[MelRoy]

04:02 AM on 01/19/2010

But the Salvation Army doesn't have to file tax returns because they're a religious charity.

[kennyfasugbe]

04:22 AM on 01/19/2010

I still have a big problem with Red Cross and their executives making millions of dollars off donations. That is why I would never donate to that dubious organization!

[javajava]

01:19 AM on 01/19/2010

Check all of those Walk For A Cure type charities and see for yourselves how much is spent on salaries and other operational costs. 100k pay for operating officers is not uncommon. I fact some charity CEO salaries (a few) approach 2 million. Their reasons for such high compensation often site that it takes persons with extraordinary skills to manage organizations that are as large as for profit corporations. I don't agree but 25k in dispute seems a niggling sum.

[jemiltd]

01:11 AM on 01/19/2010

It has been posted all day on Twitter that per CNN tax experts have examined the books of his organization and can find nothing wrong. Looks like Smoking Gun made much ado about absolutely nothing. @CNNMoney: Tax experts find little fault with Wyclef Jean http://bit.ly/4RrVEQ

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

09:15 PM on 01/19/2010

that is totally untrue.

[jemiltd]

11:44 PM on 01/19/2010

Why, because you said so? http://topics.treehugger.com/article/04sSfxP2Wwckp

[WakingLife]

01:00 AM on 01/19/2010

I'm a fan of his. I loved his music since I was in college. He was (and is) my favorite solo Fugee. I'll admit I never donated to his charity.

I don't think he intentionally did anything wrong. I don't he deserves to be ripped apart for this. That being said, I think any charity deserves to be help up to scrutiny if there are questions. That includes Yele, Red Cross, and any other.

[MizFlagPin]

11:33 PM on 01/18/2010

So many people were so deeply moved by Wyclef's press conference. Yele's server crashed under the sheer weight of people wanting to donate. His Twitter followers shot up to nearly 1.5 million. Key points from press conference that demonstrated Yele's out-of-the box thinking and the ability to adapt and overcome:

1. Wyclef will work with gangs to get community under control and secure
2. Wyclef working with President and Prime Minister to migrate 2million out PAP
3. Set up communities outside of PAP of 100k people per community
4. Supplies coming across land from DR
5. Wyclef efforts will help other NGOs to do their work with much less chaos

[charmante]

09:41 PM on 01/20/2010

Replying to bullet list number 2:

"Wyclef working with President and Prime Minister to migrate 2million out PAP"

The ruling elite is doing what they know how to do best and have been doing throughout the country 200 year history: putting a band aid on a problem and move on. They know very well once they are in the country side, it will be easier for them to forget all about them. Out of sight, out of mind.

Leogane a small town right outside of Carrefour feuille( Carrefour feuille is in Port-au-Prince) and believed to be the center of the January 12 earthquake has not heard a word from their "leadership" in Port-au-Prince. Aid is only starting to arrive now in the form of 125 US marines. Petit Goave which is another small town next to Leogane and believed to have suffered quite a bit from the january 12 earthquake and the epicenter of this morning aftershock have not heard a word either from their "leadership" in Port-au-Prince. The people have been left to fend for themselves. Aid is only starting to arrive yesterday.

I knew all along that the ruling elite with whom Wyclef share family ties were using him to help give this idea traction.

Thanks for confirming what I suspected all along.

[eddiesengola]

11:08 PM on 01/18/2010

To Save Haiti - Fire Gen 'Bro.wnie' Keen, Start Air
Drops, Cancel The Debt, Kick Out The I.M.F
By Webster G. T.arpley

WASHINGTON, DC -- Just over five days or 120 hours after a major earthquake hit the area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, it is increasingly clear that the US approach to organizing the delivery of emergency assistance and supplies is so ineffective that the general directing the distribution of emergency aid needs to be fired without further delay. The catastrophic blunder involved is the decision by the US military in the person of Gen. Ken Keen to insist on routing all external aid through a single substandard, inadequate, and partially destroyed landing field, the Toussaint L'Ouverture airport


http://tarpley.net/2010/01/18/to-save-haiti-fire-gen-%E2%80%9Cbrownie%E2%80%9D-keen-start-air-drops-cancel-the-debt-and-kick-out-the-imf/

[3dtrix]

11:32 PM on 01/18/2010

You have no idea what you are talking about - to be blunt. For too many reasons to list here. Get a hobby...

[atcrossroads]

09:08 AM on 01/19/2010

Why, are there more than one airport that can be used? With long enough runways?

[iamsamh2]

10:33 PM on 01/18/2010

Many, many celebrities and professional athletes set up charities. They usually do this for two reasons: 1. they have big hearts and have found a cause that appeals them, and 2. it's a great tax write-off. I think you can be a good person and set-up a charity with both of those reasons in mind. There "are" people, including celebrities, who don't make the best use of their organizations funds. I'm not insinuating that's the case with Wyclef. Wyclef, like all other celebrities that have charities, have a staff to help run them. Is it possible that someone on Wyclef's staff used funds inappropriately? Maybe even unintentionally?

[jemiltd]

01:13 AM on 01/19/2010

@CNNMoney: Tax experts find little fault with Wyclef Jean http://bit.ly/4RrVEQ

[MelRoy]

04:12 AM on 01/19/2010

He's just pointing out the obvious. The Clintons didn't have to pay tax on $5 million that they plowed into their foundation. They don't take salaries, but Hillary Clinton was, up until she ran for President and came under scrutiny, acting as the foundation's secretary and treasurer and sitting on the board.

Yele doesn't follow the traditional charity "model". Many of its funding relies on various benefits Wyclef puts on, and there are production costs in each instance. And yes, he paid himself a chunk of money from one benefit in 2006. There is nothing improper about this, but the fact is, the guy has invested nearly 100% of his time in Yele (and raising awareness all over the world to the plight of Haitians) since 2005, and nobody else is paying him for his hard work. I guess people expect him to live on good vibes alone. If you see something wrong with him taking some compensation (far, far less than the average), then by all means, donate to a charity which pays its CEO 10 or 20 times more. Just donate.

[ohnoforgotmyusername]

09:19 PM on 01/19/2010

And you wonder–since Jean has had a lot of fundraisers attended by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and other movie stars–how much of the $79,126 the charity raised in 2007 was contributed by him. Even if he contributed the whole thing, it’s peanuts, since the foundation pays him and his partner, Jerry DuPlessis –they are both officers of the charity–$31,200 in rent, each year, in 2006 and 2007, for using office space in a building they own through their company, Platinum Sound, which owns and operates recording studios. Their excuse is that they are renting the offices “below market value.” But why aren’t they donating that space–you know, the same way they are asking all of us, who aren’t wealthy pop stars, to donate to Haiti?

And, there’s an additional $100,000 paid to Platinum Sound in 2006, which isn’t explained at all. Add to that the $250,000 Jean’s foundation paid to Telemax, S.A., in which, the 2006 tax form says, Jean and his partner DuPlessis own a controlling interest, to buy airtime and production services. If you add it all up, Jean and his partner made more money from the charity in 2006–a total of $391,200–than the actual intended recipients did–or $324,500. Again, they use the excuse that the price paid was “below market value.” Uh-huh. Sadly, that excuse doesn’t hold water when, in fact, 38% of the money spent by the charity that year went to line Wyclef and his partner, Jerry DuPlessis’ pockets.

[lainey]

09:47 PM on 01/18/2010

I am so happy that you have spoken out on behalf of yourself and your organization. Your heart and your work has been challenged by some, but not by all. I contributed to Yele knowing that your heart, mind and soul is with and for the Haitian people's good. "What man meant for evil, God meant for good" and I believe that blessings will return to you and the Haitian people tenfold. Blessings. Peace. I believe in you and the beautiful and kind people of Haiti. Your people love you and so do I.