Wyclef, Yele Face More Financial Woes

“Charity doesn’t get to ghetto. Everybody knows that.” – Tupac, 1991

Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger. It really seems Wyclef can’t catch a break in 2010. We all know of the devastation the earthquake that struck his native Haiti caused earlier this year. Then surfaced the financial “mishaps” which ‘Clef denied any wrongdoing in. Had this been 10 years ago, it would have died then. But since it’s not 10 years ago and nothing is really “secret” anymore, the legendary Haitian musician now has another set of problems to deal with. And it has to do with money, again.

According to everyone’s favorite detective, The Smoking Gun, Wyclef and Yele were using the organization’s earnings to pay for studio time. Well, rent, but who cares? Same difference.

While TSG has previously reported that the Wyclef Jean Foundation has been paying $3200 monthly to a Manhattan recording studio owned by the musician and his cousin Jerry Duplessis, accounting statements show that, in 2006, the not-for-profit group paid $65,000 upfront for that space. According to two sources, the Jean foundation’s “office” was actually a cafe table in the West 46th Street studio’s kitchen.

I’m not about to sit here and crucify Wycelf because, frankly, I don’t know the whole story. But if this is true, I’m pissed because I donated money to Yele believing it was for the right cause and that my small amount of cash would help someone who actually needed it. This is why people don’t trust charity organizations in the first place. He has to do something to improve the image of Yele because people are pissed right now. And the last thing he wants is to really reenact this scene.