Wyclef Jean Gives Emotional Press Conference to Refute Claims of Mismanagement in his Yele Haiti Charity

Wyclef Jean gives emotional press conference to refute claims of mismanagement in his Yele Haiti charity.

I watched Wyclef Jean's press conference today and I was literally moved to tears towards the end as he became emotional too. He defended his charity, Yele Haiti, against the accusations that he took funds for personal use and that the organization has not been completely forthcoming about its use of donations.

As I said when I first blogged about this incident, the motivation of the investigators, The Smoking Gun, was suspect because of the timing of the revelation. Don't get me wrong, if Yele isn't above-board, then they should be held accountable, but why was this revealed last week, in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake? Why wasn't this information revealed in August when Yele Haiti's tax returns were filed with the Internal Revenue Service?

Wyclef began his press conference by discussing his history as a Haitian, moving to the United States as an alien resident and living the "American dream." "Have we made mistakes before? Yes. Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefits? Absolutely not. Yele's books are open and transparent and we have been given a clean bill of health by an external auditor every year since we started."