Did Wyclef Use Haiti Charity To Pay His Mistress?

After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Grammy Award-winning singer Wyclef Jean's charity Yele Haiti received millions of dollars of donations before coming under fire for years of shaky accounting and reports that the nonprofit had given $410,000 to businesses tied to Jean. Now, according to Yele sources and tax documents, it appears that the former Fugee paid his personal assistant and mistress $105,000 in 2008—more than three times the salary of the program's director, according to Gawker.

Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus is now Yele's vice president, but in 2008 she was reportedly a girlfriend and personal assistant to the married musician, who apparently maintains an open relationship with his wife. And insiders said Khatou-Chevassus was compensated with nonprofit money even when she was working on Jean's for-profit ventures. "She worked for Wyclef on all Wyclef matters," one tipster told the website. "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."

In that year, Khatou-Chevassus received roughly one-third of all money Yele spent on management and general expenses for her work on "program development." After Yele was accused of shady financial dealings including paying $31,200 annually to rent a table inside the kitchen of a recording studio that Jean and his cousin own, Jean defended himself and the nonprofit, stating he would never "take money for my personal pocket when it comes to Yele."

Here's a list of NGOs providing relief work in Haiti, via the Daily Beast.