The Haiti earthquake has already triggered hundreds of thousands of donations to musician Wyclef Jeanâs charitable foundation, which expects to raise upwards of $1 million a day in the disasterâs wake. However, Internal Revenue Service records show the group has a lackluster history of accounting for its finances, and that the organization has paid the performer and his business partner at least $410,000 for rent, production services, and Jeanâs appearance at a benefit concert. Though the Wyclef Jean Foundation, which does business as Yele Haiti Foundation, was incorporated 12 years agoâand has been active since that timeâthe group only first filed tax returns in August 2009. That month, the foundation provided the IRS with returns covering calendar years 2005, 2006, and 2007âthe only periods for which it has publicly provided a glimpse at its financial affairs. In 2006, Jeanâs charity reported contributions of $1 million, the bulk of which came from People magazine in exchange for the first photos of a pregnant Angelina Jolie (the actress reportedly directed that the publicationâs payment go to Jeanâs charity, not her personally). As seen on the following pages from the foundationâs 2006 tax return, the group paid $31,200 in rent to Platinum Sound, a Manhattan recording studio owned by Jean and Jerry Duplessis, who, like Jean, is a foundation board member. A $31,200 rent payment was also made in 2007 to Platinum Sound. The rent, tax returns assure, âis priced below market value.â The recording studio also was paid $100,000 in 2006 for the âmusical performance services of Wyclef Jean at a benefit concert.â That six-figure payout, the tax return noted, âwas substantially less than market value.â The return, of course, does not address why Jean needed to be paid to perform at his own charityâs fundraiser.
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