Wyclef Jean has officially stepped down as the head of his non-profit organization Yéle Haiti, as he prepares to run for President of Haiti.

According to reports, Derek Q. Johnson will take over Jean’s role at Yéle Haiti, which raised almost $10 million dollars for victims of an earthquake that leveled the city of Port-Au-Prince and left some 250,000 residents dead and another 3 million displaced.

Derek Q. Johnson is known for his work in revitalizing the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

“For the past five years, Yéle has been a huge part of life for me, my wife, Claudinette, and the rest of our family, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish for the country and people we love,” Wyclef Jean, 37,  said in a statement. “I have learned many important lessons from my experience with Yéle, most notably the incredible power of individuals united by a sense of purpose and community.”

Read the whole article at AllHipHop.com!

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Forget birthday cake, Lil Kim did her body good with a good old fashioned milkshake this weekend.

Lil’ Kim joined the long list of celebrities in creating her very own signature milkshake at Millions of Milkshakes on Sunday. Proceeds from the purchase of her celeb milkshake will go towards her charity of choice, the Yele Haiti Relief (founded by Wyclef Jean). “Wyclef is a good friend of mine…and for this birthday, I really wanted to give something back.”

Check out pics from Bossip.com

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Rapper Wyclef Jean returned from his native home of Haiti on a mission dear to his heart.

Sources told AllHipHop.com that Wyclef Jean arrived at JFK Airport in Queens, New York around 6:00 PM last night (April 22nd) with three very special guests.

Through his Yele Haiti non-profit, the rapper flew over three female victims of the massive 7.0 earthquake that destroyed Haiti’s capital city of Port-Au-Prince in January.

Yele Haiti will pay for all three of the girls to receive artificial limbs, a source confirmed with AllHipHop.com.

One girl is an eight-year-old, while the other two are 17-years of age.

Read the whole article at AllHipHop.com

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RELATED: Wyclef Used $105K Of Yelé Haiti’s Money To Pay His Mistress/Assistant

Wyclef’s personal assistant, Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus received a salary of $105,000 a year according to Yelé Haiti’s 2008 tax refund.

Gawker.com blew the lid off the story earlier today.

…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.

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.

Click here to read the whole exposé here.

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Several weeks after the earthquakes in Haiti devastated the country, functionally illiterate R&B singer R. Kelly finally took some time out of his busy Pied Pipering schedule to post a video on YouTube soliciting donations for Yele Haiti.

Better late than never, I guess…

But if only he practiced his speech before he instructed people to call the six digit number on the screen instead of texting it.

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Wyclef returned home to the United States in order to respond to accusations of he and his business partner profiting from the Yele Haiti charity.

The Smoking Gun and Gawker have published two articles that call into question the business practices of Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti organization.

From TheSmokingGun.com

The Haiti earthquake has already triggered hundreds of thousands of donations to musician Wyclef Jean’s charitable foundation, which expects to raise upwards of $1 million a day in the disaster’s 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 Jean’s appearance at a benefit concert. Though the Wyclef Jean Foundation, which does business as Yele Haiti Foundation, was incorporated 12 years ago–and has been active since that time–the group only first filed tax returns in August 2009. That month, the foundation provided the IRS with returns covering calendar years 2005, 2006, and 2007–the only periods for which it has publicly provided a glimpse at its financial affairs. In 2006, Jean’s 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 publication’s payment go to Jean’s charity, not her personally).

Read The Smoking Gun’s full exposé and see Yele Haiti’s tax documents here.

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From Gawker.com

There’s no doubt Wyclef Jean — who has raised $1 million since the Haiti earthquake — wants to help his homeland. But a look at his personal foundation’s finances raises questions about whether it’s wisely managing the donations it’s collecting.

The Smoking Gun took a look at the finances of Yele Haiti, the foundation Wyclef Jean founded to help his homeland—and it’s ugly. Jean founded Yele Haiti in 1998, according to TSG, but didn’t file any tax returns until five months ago, in August 2009. And the returns filed so far—for 2005, 2006, and 2007 only—reveal that Yele directed huge sums of money to commercial entities that Jean and his business partner Jerry Duplessis own stakes in.

The most eye-popping expenditure is $250,000 that the foundation paid in 2006 to Telemax, S.A., a Haitian television company that Jean and Duplessis own a controlling interest in. The payment for “airtime and production services” appears to have been related to a telethon of some sort that Yele Haiti produced in the country—its chalked up to “outreach”—and amounts to one out of every five dollars that the foundation took in that year. The return claims the fees were “below market” and constituted the “most efficient” way for Yele Haiti to conduct outreach.

Read more at Gawker.com

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Wyclef Jean was desperately looking for Jean “Jimmy O” Jimmy Alexandre, but sadly the Haitian rapper was slain in the massive 7.0 earthquake that has devastated Haiti. From AllHipHop.com

Wyclef told CNN, “I urge everyone who’s listening right now that knows how great this kid is in Haiti — I need y’all to verify this information. It would be a terrible loss for us.”

Jimmy O, 35, was a member of Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

The rapper died as he drove to Port-au-Prince to work on a mixtape. His body was crushed by rubble disrupted by the quake.

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The body was discovered on Friday (January 15) and verified by a passport on his lifeless body.

Jimmy O was very important to the local rap scene as he helped to mentor rappers and contributed charitable work through Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

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Jimmy O was a married father of three children.

“His loss will be tremendous in Haiti,” said Agent Robert Dominique to CNN.

Dada Entertainment, one of the foremost innovators in digital and mobile entertainment services, recently announced an innovative charity drive to raise money for Yele Haiti, the organization founded by multiple Grammy-Award winning musician, producer, and Haitian Goodwill Ambassador Wyclef Jean. The initiative — which launched Nov. 17 — saw a portion of every new Dada.net subscription donated to support the work of Yele Haiti and their plan to repair schools that were recently destroyed in the region.

“We are excited to be able to use our success to give something back through a worthwhile group like Yele Haiti, and we are sure our consumers will be thrilled they are doing their part as well,” said Dada Entertainment CEO Massimiliano Pellegrini. “Wyclef Jean has done such tremendous work in Haiti, we couldn’t think of a better organization or a better person to partner with for our first charity initiative. We wish Wyclef and Yele Haiti the best as they continue their great work long into the future.”

Dada Entertainment supported the charity drive through banner ads and links on its homepage: www.Dada.net. There will also be a dedicated page on the Dada website describing the program and Yele Haiti. Dada Entertainment CEO Massimiliano Pellegrini presented a check to Wyclef Jean at a presentation yesterday (Dec. 3).

“In the world of digital innovation and changing behavior in receiving news and information, it is always great when organizations and companies use their ability to reach for a positive purpose. I am happy to announce our initiative with Dada Entertainment, and am looking forward to working with them and my organization, Yele Haiti,” said Wyclef Jean.

Music fans who signed up for Dada.net are given 15 tokens per month for only $9.99 ($0.67 a song). Each token can be redeemed for one download of a full-track MP3, ringtone, or other mobile content including wallpapers and games. All MP3 tracks are DRM-free allowing consumers to transfer their download to any mobile phone, iPod or digital music player. Dada expects to be able to offer users over-the-air MP3 downloads to mobile devices in the coming weeks.

Dada.net users are billed for the service through their phone bill via Premium SMS. Dada currently offers all genres of music from Universal Music Group and Sony BMG artists, and will soon announce additional content deals with both major and independent labels.

SOURCE: Melodika.net