Wyclef Jean may have closed his defamed charity’s doors, but it’s been hit with yet another lawsuit.
HVS Global Hospitality Services says that Yele Haiti, the humanitarian organization Jean founded in 2005 and closed last year, owes it $108,972 for a job-training course that was never completely paid for, the New York Daily News reports.
The firm says that Yele Haiti had agreed to pay $285,000 for the hospitality and education training program for Haitians, but the organization fell behind on payments and neglected billing statements.
But Jean says he's trying to resolve the issue.
"Mr. Jean has been working 'assiduously' for the past two years with his attorneys, in concert with the Attorney General's Office of New York State to resolve this matter to the 'full satisfaction' of all parties concerned," Melanie A. Bonvicino, Jean's spokesperson, said in an email to The Huffington Post.
This is just one of a slew of allegations that’s been waged against the nonprofit, which Jean founded to improve living conditions for people in Haiti.
In 2010, the Smoking Gun revealed that Jean and his partner collected at least $410,000 from the organization to help cover rent and production services. Jean received $100,000 to perform at his own charity's fundraiser.
A year later, the New York Post reported exclusively that the nonprofit, which raised $1 million within days of the Haiti earthquake, spent just $5.1 million of its $16 million on relief efforts. The paper also alleged that the organization hired questionable agencies to carry out its work.
The former Fugees singer defended his charity at the time, and continued to do even after it was shut down.
"Immediate decisions were made to save lives and alleviate suffering," Jean said in a statement of how the funds were spent. "We made decisions that enabled us to provide emergency assistance in the midst of chaos and we stand by those decisions."
The charity eventually closed last summer amid a financial scandal, but Jean remained adamant about the organization’s goodwill and wrote in a memoir he released last year that he endured a “crucifixion” after the earthquake in Haiti.
“We are a completely transparent organization,” Jean told the Associated Press in September of last year, “and I invite the world’s curiosity.”
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