Jay-Z Documentary: Behind The Scenes of 9/11 Benefit Concert + More! [15 Min- VIDEO]

Wyclef Haiti Charity Under Fiscal Scrutiny/ Hear His Reponse!

The Washington Post reported that by Friday morning, just days after the earthquake hit, Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation had raised more than $1.5 million.

Groups that vet charities are raising doubts about the organization backed by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, questioning its accounting practices and ability to function in earthquake-hit Haiti. Even as hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. via text message, experts questioned how much of the money would help those in need.

”It’s questionable. There’s no way to get around that,” said Art Taylor, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.

Undoubtedly, Jean's celebrity helped draw in donors: He's an internationally known musician from Haiti who won a Grammy with the Fugees and went on to a hugely successful solo career. But an analysis of the charity's tax returns raises questions about how it has spent money in the past, with administrative expenses that appear to be higher than comparable charities and payments to businesses owned by the musician and a board member, including $100,000 for a performance by Jean at a 2006 benefit concert.

"It seems clear that a significant amount of the monies that this charity raises go for costs other than providing benefits to Haitians in need," said Dean Zerbe, national managing director of Alliant Group, a tax services company, and the former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees charities.

The concerns were first reported on The Smoking Gun Web site.

"It brings real caution for donors that want to help in Haiti that they might want to take a harder look at this organization but also consider the significant number of charities that have been doing good work in Haiti that don't have these question marks," Zerbe said.

Hugh Locke, president of Yele Haiti, said the charity does what others can't, because Jean gives it unusual access to the country's slums. He said the group hopes to spend a higher percentage of its budget on services as it gains experience. "I think people should be very comfortable that any money given to Yele Haiti is going 100 percent to emergency relief."

The earthquake prompted so much donor interest in Yele Haiti that its Web site crashed Thursday. Yele Haiti also is getting much publicity at events, including a fundraiser Monday at the 9:30 Club and a telethon next Friday hosted by actor George Clooney. It is collecting supplies Sunday in Miami and airlifting them to Port-au-Prince next week, Locke said.
The charity provides scholarships, funds a soccer team, takes students on environmental-education camping trips and employs women to cook for schools, according to Yele Haiti. After a 2008 storm, it helped a food program distribute emergency rations to 6,000 families without violence, Locke said, organizing the community to distribute the food rather than sending in aid workers with armed guards.
But its financial records raise questions, experts say. In 2006, Yele Haiti had about $1 million in revenue, according to tax documents. More than a third of the money went to payments to related parties, said lawyer James Joseph, who specializes in nonprofit issues.
"It might be completely legitimate. But it's certainly something I would want to look into more carefully," Joseph said.

For instance, the charity recorded a payment of $250,000 to Telemax, a TV station and production company in Haiti in which Jean and Jerry Duplessis, both members of Yele Haiti's board of directors, had a controlling interest. The charity paid about $31,000 in rent to Platinum Sound, a Manhattan recording studio owned by Jean and Duplessis. And it spent an additional $100,000 for Jean's performance at a benefit concert in Monaco. Locke said that Jean and Duplessis were unavailable for comment Friday.

The Telemax money was used for "everything from public-service announcements to educational programming," said Jesse Derris of the public relations firm Sunshine, Sachs and Associates, which is representing Yele Haiti. They used their own company "because it was a way to buy time at a significant discount."
The rent included office space and shared receptionist services for the charity and is "severely reduced" below market rate, Derris said. All the proceeds of the benefit concert went directly to Yele Haiti, he said. Locke said the $100,000 included expenses, such as payments to backup musicians and production costs.

Yele Haiti reported nearly $1.9 million in income on its 2008 tax return.


Wyclef Jean recently heard these comments and responded in a YouTube statement:




ALSO CHECK HIM OUT GETTING INTERVIEWED IN HAITI PRIOR TO THIS MESSAGE:

Alicia Keys Live In Concert [FULL VIDEO]

Plies Gives $1000 To Little Girl At His Concert To Make Her Leave!

Word is, as Plies was preparing to perform his song “Bust It Baby” the rapper’s moral standards kicked in and instead of telling the young girl in the audience along with her parents to leave because he felt his lyrics were inappropriate, the rapper instead gave the girl $1,000 and then asked that her parents take her somewhere else more appropriate.

This isn’t the first time Plies has shown that he has a kind heart for the youngsters especially the girls — at a past basketball game, the rapper gave one of his chains to a young girl crying

Drake Says Rehab Is Impairing Him To Write Raps...

As Drake continues to mend from a July knee injury, the rapper says he's going a bit crazy being confined to his home in Toronto.

Although he is able to walk around, Drake told Billboard that the rehab period has caused his writing to slow down considerably.

"Sitting at home in your apartment and having a doctor come over every day and eating healthy and going to the gym -- there's not much of a rap album to be made off that," he continued. "I have to get my inspiration and start seeing things and going to dinners and meeting people again and just finding stories to tell for this album. I'm trying to make something timeless."

Drake, who suffered a torn ACL in July following a stage accident, said he's planning to head out to Los Angeles on Oct. 11 for more writing and recording on his upcoming album, tentatively titled "Thank Me Later" and due out in February.

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Jay-Z 9/11 "ANSWER THE CALL" Concert- Madison Square Garden Full Video

CONCERT WAS SOLD OUT IN LIKE 15 MINUTES!
JAY-Z HOLDS THE CROWN!

LEGENDARY AS IF WE EXPECTED DIFFERENT!!

W/ APPEARANCES BY _____
(AHH JUST WATCH IT!!! THAT'S WHAT JAY DOES!)

JAY-Z: Encore Presentions on Fuse!

Sunday 9/13 at 5p and 12a ET
Tuesday 9/15 at 10p ET
Thursday 9/17 at 6p ET

Jay-Z September 11 Benefit Concert/ Release Party At Madison Square Garden

Jay-Z is set to celebrate the September 11 release of his Blueprint 3 album with a benefit concert at New York City's famed Madison Square Garden the same day. But this is good synergy: All proceeds go to the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund. The show also seems destined to be a star-studded must-see. You don't even have to live in NYC to catch it-- the gig is being broadcast on Fuse as it happens, according to a press release.