Yele Haiti E-mails Keep Wyclef Jean Controversy Stirring

(Jan. 21) -- The controversy surrounding Wyclef Jean's use of his charity's donations continues to build, even after the popular musician gave an emotion-laden defense this week.

On Wednesday, Gawker published an exposé of Yele Haiti e-mails and financial statements which, the Manhattan-based blog says, reveal that Jean did not put $1 million of his own money into the founding of the organization, as he has alluded to on multiple occasions. Gawker said the documents suggest Jean actually took money from Yele's initial donations to pay for his own expenses.

"I started the charity with my own funds," Jean insisted on Monday. "I wanted to make sure that Yele would not just be a foundation, but it would actually be an NGO on the ground in Haiti, because that's the only way I could be effective to the Haitian people."

"Jean made no contribution whatsoever to Yele Haiti from its founding in January 2005 through November of that year," Gawker writer John Cook contested on Wednesday.

Yele appears instead to have been started with an $800,000 donation from a Haitian cell phone company. Several of Jean's fellow music industry friends also reportedly contributed smaller sums early on: Russell Simmons (co-founder of hip-hop record label Def Jam) gave $10,000, while Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel fame) made a $1,000 donation.

But Gawker's sources also indicate that during its first few months of existence, Yele doled out $18,696 to Jean's record label and $22,750 to his production company.

E-mails reveal that Yele Haiti's first executive director resigned less than a year after its founding in protest of these and other allegedly improper actions by Jean and his cousin Jerry Duplessis. Even Yele's current executive director is said to have written an e-mail threatening resignation over ethical concerns.

Jean's charity was initially put on the hot seat last week when copies of Yele's tax returns were published by Smoking Gun, which said the organization had failed to file for several years in a row and lost its corporate status as a result. The investigative Web site has continued to update its findings and recently repudiated Jean's defense. But some in the press have contested the Smoking Gun's findings; CNN Money states that "experts on nonprofits" failed to find serious financial lapses in the organization's tax history.

Both Yele and its famous founder were initially lauded in the mainstream media for collecting donations to provide "immediate" aid to Haiti following the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake. Jean is still scheduled to appear as one of the main performers Friday during George Clooney's celebrity-filled Haiti relief telethon. The purpose is to encourage viewers to donate to several relief organizations and charities, including Yele.