Wyclef Jean is facing the most serious allegations of his career, with new information emerging regarding financial corruption occurring within his Haitian charity “Yele”. There has always been a certain amount of mistrust relating to Wyclef’s supposed love for his country. When he ran for president in 2010 the reaction was lukewarm to say the least. Even his own ex-group member Pras questioned his validity to run, in what was a serious blow to the rapper’s credibility. Those misgivings were eventually proved correct when the Haitian government stopped Wyclef from entering the race because of his failure to meet the criteria. Yet for all the hype and mud-slinging which occurred in that hectic period of time, it will be nothing compared to the avalanche of criticism set to fall on the rapper in the coming weeks.

Despite receiving 16 million dollars in donations in just two years, Wyclef’s charity has now ceased operations. Immediately alarm bells start ringing as to what sort of gross mismanagement could be responsible for such a startling collapse. Perhaps the most damaging revelation is that Yele paid Wyclef Jean 100, 000 dollars to perform a concert in France, essentially amounting to Wyclef paying himself. The only excuse being that this was the figure he generally commands. It is an unprecedented scenario that a man’s own charity would give such a sum to the charity operator just to perform a few songs, especially given the horrific conditions the people of the country continue to endure.

Apart from that eye catching piece of information, other details have emerged such as private jets for actors Matt Damon and Lindsey Lohan with bills of 30, 000 dollars bandied about flippantly. In essence, much of the millions given to Yele was spent on the “operational costs” of the charity as opposed to going to the people of Haiti. So with this in mind it is perhaps a strange time for Wyclef to release his own auto-biography “Purpose: An Immigrant’s Story”. With his words under more scrutiny than ever, critics will have no doubt noticed the lack of references to the problems Yele encountered in it’s brief life span.

Despite it’s creation in 2004, the vast amounts of money which entered the charity were mostly after the Earth quake and there is an uncomfortable feeling that Yele ultimately profited from the disaster. Of the millions that weren’t going on jet’s, concert’s and office bills most of the money went on projects which had a mysteriously high failure rate. Housing contracts which never materialised and food for the hungry which was never delivered. In all it paints a very damaging image of a once much celebrated philantropist. A rather bizarre story that surfaced during the presidential election was an assassination attempt on Wyclef which left him shot in the hand. At the time I would have commended Wyclef for his bravery in continuing to run his campaign. Now I get the nagging feeling it was probably the result of some dodgy business deal he was profiting from.

A quick look on Wyclef’s Facebook page shows the rapper trying to divert criticism by posting photo’s of the charity work which did take place. It does however seem like mere spitting against the wind. Nobody is suggesting that Yele never got anything done, when such large amounts of money flow through a charity the odds are that some good was achieved. But the money given to Yele was on the basis that all of it would be given to a good cause. Instead of clarifying the allegations, Wyclef’s Facebook posts feel more like someone posing for a photo opportunity rather than actually improving the living conditions for the Haitian people.As a fan of Wyclef , I’m saddened to hear of the corruption that occurred within Yele. It seems that a lavish celebrity style lifestyle has taken hold of the once humble Haitian rapper. Who knows if he can justify these things to himself or if he remains unremorseful for his actions. But right now he reminds me of Wall Street villains like Enron’s Ken Lay, rather than someone who uses his position for good. The hip-hop community itself must feel a certain amount of betrayal by Wyclef. In an era of recession and financial troubles we count on leaders like Jean to lead the way and set an example for other millionaire rappers. After all it was the hip-hop fans who put them in that position through album sales in the 90’s.

Two years ago I interviewed the award winning spoken word poet Ise Lyfe. Asking him for his opinion on the then clean cut Wyclef, Ise pointed out that celebrity culture and politics don’t often achieve results. If recent revelations are correct, then his words would ultimately prove prophetic.

Click Here to listen to Ise Lyfe’s 2010 Interview on Hip-Hop and Haiti

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