I’m neither a conspiratorialist nor a coincidentalist.  When something hugely damaging comes down on working families or poor people, I try not to automatically blame it on a corporate cartel or a right-wing plot.  But I also reject the notion that s*** just happens, and so I habitually take Richard Pryor’s advice and “trust my lying eyes.”  One of them blinked fairly wide open last week when a report that Wyclef Jean’s Yele Foundation had raised $1.5 in Twitter donations for Haiti relief was followed the next day by a Washington Post report alleging financial improprieties by the scrappy charity. 

The day after the earthquake, Clef, as his intimates call him, was on the ground in his long-suffering country, just as he’s done again and again in times of Haitian tragedy.  His brother Sam hit the news shows back here, and his fans began tweeting $5 donations, knowing the hip hop-rap-world music singer/musician has unique ways of cutting through bureaucratic walls and reaching Haitians in their neighborhoods. Soon, Yele supplies began trickling into Port-au-Prince while big-charity pallets stacked up at the airport.  Sean himself asked what he could do personally, and was soon working alongside his courageous countrymen stacking and transporting bodies.

The Washington Post piece broke on Saturday.  In a by-lined article, reporter Susan Kinzie belied her attitude with her second sentence: “Undoubtedly, Jean’s celebrity helped draw in donors ….. “ Place the emphasis on the words “draw in” to appreciate my observance.  Then she wrote, “But an analysis of the charity’s tax returns raises questions about how it has spent money in the past, with administrative expenses that appear to be higher than comparable charities and payments to businesses owned by the musician and a board member, including $100,000 for a performance by Jean at a 2006 benefit concert.”  A man named Dean Zerbe, “national managing Director of Alliant Group, a tax services company, and the former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees charities,” was quoted saying, “It brings real caution for donors that want to take a harder look at this organization, but also consider the significant number of charities that have been doing good work in Haiti that don’t have these question marks.”  James Joseph, “an attorney who specializes in non-profit issues,” said, “It might be completely legitimate.  But it is certainly something I would want to look into more carefully.”

I decided to Google around and confirmed that Zerbe was indeed tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee under Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley.  Once he left the committee, Zerbe hooked up with the Alliant Group, which, according to the company’s website, works “with business and their CPA firms to identify powerful, government-sponsored, cash-generating credits, incentives and deductions ….”  The website goes on to say, “When Dean was Senior Counsel and Tax Counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, his job was to know how to get things done on The Hill, and he was intimately involved with almost every piece of tax legislation that was signed into law.  Now as National Managing Director for alliantgroup, Dean is the ultimate tax policy expert — and his job is to make sure our clients know how to take advantage of every tax incentive the government makes available.”

Hmmmmmm. Seems the Senate committee does more than oversee “charities.”  Under Bush-Grassley, Zerbe helped create corporate tax loopholes, and now he’s helping corporations take advantage of those loopholes. Nothing on the website mentioned “charities,” or charitable giving services.

I Googled up James Joseph, the attorney who “specializes in non-profit issues,” but found nothing.

Soooooo, some questions, and the first is, “Who started this story?”  Did Susan Kenzie’s editors notice the ungodly amount of money being raised ($1.5 million) and order up an investigative piece?  Or did a “tip” come in from someone like Zerbe or Joseph, or a public relations firm like the one operated by alliantgroup?  How does an expert on corporate tax avoidance get called upon to comment on expenditures for things like concert production costs?   Why wasn’t someone with show business production experience asked to comment?  Who is attorney James Joseph and how did Kenzie come to interview him?  Who stands to benefit from the discrediting of Wyclef Jean’s efforts to raise money for Haiti relief?

 I dunno.  But I do know some things about Wyclef Jean.  A few years ago, I produced a couple of concerts headlining Wyclef for UNITE/HERE, the labor union, one in Atlantic City, another in New Haven on the campus of Yale University.  In both cases, the production costs for these outdoor concerts amounted to about $150,000.  Wyclef and his band were paid an additional $50,000, about half his normal performance fee.  In Atlantic City, we asked him to lead our protest march and subject himself to possible arrest.  His response was that he was from Haiti and was used to getting arrested there and jailed under conditions worse than those in this country.

 The$100,000 spent on the benefit concert in Monaco, the smoking gun in the Washington Post article?  A more than reasonable expense — I wish I could bring in a big show that economically.  My guess is that someone, for some reason, decided to drop a dime on Wyclef, to “ACORN” him, so to speak.  And the Post is to be condemned for taking the bait.

 As for my friends who want to help the Haitians, my advice is to check out Wyclef at Yele.com and then tweet “Haiti501501″ and donate $5 on the outside chance that some of it will get to a few victims quicker than relief from the major charities, who are responding with eleemosynary constipation.  Also, trust your own lyin’ eyes and join Wyclef, George Clooney and Anderson Cooper, whose celebrity will “undoubtedly” draw in contributions, for MTV’s “Hope for Haiti” telephone on your favorite network, Friday, January 22, at 8 pm.  And the next time you go to a fund-raising dinner for some big-shot, mainstream organization consider this: 80% or more of the $100 you paid for your ticket is going to pay for the food, production and promotional costs.