The Smoking Gun put Wyclef on blast again.
From Gawker.com


Yele Haiti, the sketchy foundation that Wyclef Jean founded to help the Haitian people—which received millions in the outpouring of generosity following the wake of the earthquake there—paid Jean's mistress and personal assistant $105,000 in 2008.


That's Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus on the right in the photo above. According to Yele Haiti's 2008 tax return, which was posted this week by the Smoking Gun, the charity paid Khatou-Chevassus $105,000 as an independent contractor in 2008 for "program development." That amounts to roughly one-third of all the money Yele spent that year on management and general expenses.

So what did she do for that money? Khatou-Chevassus is currently listed on Yele's web site as the organization's vice president. But according to five sources familiar with Yele's operations, in 2008 she served as Jean's personal assistant—working on his commercial endeavors as well as his charitable ones—and was involved romantically with the former Fugees star.

"She worked for Wyclef on all Wyclef matters," says one source who has worked with Jean in the past. "She did whatever Wyclef needed that day, whether it was related to Yele or not. She would do things like book flights, and she wasn't very good at it. It's a shame that she made that much money." The source said Khatou-Chevassus' salary amounted to more than three times what Suzie Sylvain, Yele Haiti's dedicated program director who is credited by many Yele Haiti insiders with actually keeping the organization running, was paid.

"Everyone knows they were in a relationship," says another source familiar with Yele Haiti. "A dozen people, including me, saw and knew. It wasn't a secret." Jean is married, but he has said in the past that he has an open relationship with his wife.

Jean has a long history of using Yele Haiti's money for his own commercial gain. In 2005, 2006, and 2007, the foundation paid out a total of $410,000 to commercial entities controlled in whole or in part by Wyclef, including a whopping $250,000 for advertising time on a Haitian television station he co-owns. According to internal financial statements obtained by Gawker in January, Jean didn't contribute a single dollar to Yele Haiti's American operation during the year he founded it, and its founding executive director resigned because he "saw hundreds of thousands of dollars going to business needs and nothing going to the charity, when it seemed that part of Wyclef's new PR strategy focuses on his charitable endeavors." In 2006, he demanded a $100,000 fee to perform at a Yele Haiti fundraiser designed to raise money for his own hometown. The event was canceled in part because securing Jean's participation was too expensive

As the Smoking Gun noted, Khatou-Chevassus seems to have done some modeling in the past. The photo on the right above was taken at a 2009 reception she organized in New York for Prince Edward's International Award Association. (Captions from photographs taken at the event that we found online identify her as the CEO of Carte Blanche International, but we're almost certain that's an error. All of the people we spoke to who know Khatou-Chevassus say it's preposterous that she'd be a credit card executive; we've called Carte Blanche to ask.)

A call to Khatou-Chevassus and an e-mail to Yele Haiti's publicist were not immediately returned.

not good

*facepalm*

This is really disgusting. Why would he do that?

I had heard the rumblings of scandal/corruption linked to Yele.

I hope for those who hope to receive help and assistance from them that they are proven unfounded.

So often chariable organizations don't sepnd nearly as much as they take in and that missing money never seems to materialize.

Somebody had it out for Wyclef and started tipping the press about his shady dealings, i.e Yele/mistress.

This is probably nothing new to his wife about his mistress because they have an open relationship. What is it with these island men Lisa Raye's ex-hubby was heavy into corruption as well.

The whole process is corrupt the whole damn country is corrupt, i mean the red cross is having issues and they are the most reputible thing and they dont wanna deal with the fund abuse that is rampant all over in Haiti. The thing is that we always throw money at situations and then turn away and then go "oh shit someone stole the cash" yeah no shit sherlock, giving money to the Haitian Govt is like giving pot to Woody Harrelson and expecting him not to smoke it. I mean come on now, i know people dont wanna admit this but when Bill Maher said this was gonna happen and called the 24/7 all day all night coverage of Haiti and nothing else "disaster porn" he was 100% right as usual, americans got numb to the coverage, no one cares at this point, they did their part gave some money, and now are going "hey why arent they up and running yet", its the price of too much media, too much of ONE media coverage, i mean the weeks of nothing but 9/11, i mean, yes a horrible tragedy, but 3,000 died that day, and yes a million died in haiti, but almost have died in the congo, but has anyone even covered that story? no the first mention i heard of it was on the Bill Maher show, wheres BET on that one? Wheres ABC and CBS and CNN on that one?

Wow somebody is jacking up his side hustle! I thought he was
for the people? This money is not his to begin with, and it would
help his people who don't have a lot of other options to aid them.

He needs to get that money back from her... every white dime from that skank!

HonestMan13 said:

Me too, this is not the 1st time I hear this, and he did talk about. In fact he replied to them...


Lets just hope that its a case of a "fruitful tree always get thrown with stones" and not a real accusation. I don't even like the man but I'm not ready to jump the gun yet.

His defensiveness is telling and should have been all the proof George Clooney needed to pull Yele from the recipient list of George's telethon. Knowingly or not, this non-profit needs to be held accountable for it's shady expenses.

I think if it was true, ain't no surprise he's trying to defend himself so hastily especially with all that info. It's not exactly tabloid-ish. If it was posted on a tabloid site, I'd been like "eh"...something rubs me wrong about Wyclef.

the point that sticks out as the most galling in this whole article as this his own charity couldn't afford to hire him to put on a show to benefit his own hometown.


seriously. wtf.

Wow. So messed up!

sosgemini said:

apparently YH was last on the list aka it got money from the telethon etc but not a lot. I think it was added at the last minute.

errant said:

Yeah that's really fucked up.

one word sums it up:

AUDIT

I TOLD YA'LL!!!!

Wait wasn't he on the TV crying about this a few months ago when he was accused of stealing the money???

missfee said:

Yeah lol

Personal charities of celebrities are always bullshit... Why do you need a charity with your name on it? If you wanna give\help, why dilute money through more managment and beaurocracy instead of just giving to a pre-existing charity? The less charity companies in operation the more money actually gets to the cause. It's just PR for the celebs.

Haiti has a long history of corruption and not caring for the needs of its' people. I'm not surprised to hear this story, whether it was Wyclef or not. Most of my Haitian friends live in Miami and New York/NJ just for that reason, trying to navigate daily life on the island around the elites and corruptive powers-that-be is practically impossible.

I don't know what to believe yet.

why am i not suprised!?!?

There have been rumblings about YH and accusations levied at Clef for YEARS! Hell, he's had several business failures and home forclosures in recent years. All of this is public record. Tain't no way in hell I'd give him money. I gave mine to Doctors Without Borders and a local doctors' mission.

I knew he was up for an audit this year.

SCNDLS said:

I have to agree...There's a growing movement against groups like Red Cross too. Why is it we give these peeps millions yet we give very lil to organizations that actually try to prepare or prevent harm during disasters? Makes no since.

All these fund raising mofos are prone to theivin' but even if some of the money went to help some poor haitian somewhere in his/her time of need....those of us who donated got to resolve this in our hearts. Plus we get a tax write off so we can't be complainin too too much.


But um...Wyclef still wrong as piss lemonade.

TonyVanDam said:

Me neither.

Something tells me that this thing will be swept under the rug though, don't ask me why.

Harlepolis said:

Things like this are always swept under the rug.