The Grammy-winning soul singer Mary J. Blige has been ousted for some shady business practices over a charity scam that sees the singer, along with business partner Steve Stoute, owing thousands in unpaid payments to banks, tax offices and even fellow singers.
The New York Post reported that the R&B diva’s charity organisation, the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN), failed to file its federal tax returns of the last two years, along with a required annual state registry.
Originally established by Blige and Stoute to “offer scholarships and women’s issue workshops.” Blige boasted on a previous television appearance that FFAWN had put twenty-five women through college, but the charity has since been hit with two lawsuits, including defaulting on a $US 250,000 bank loan and another involving a breach of contract over a star-studded benefit concert held by the charity organisation.
The concert, held in May of 2011 and hosted by Queen Latifah, featured performances from Blige along with fellow singers Jennifer Hudson and Christina Aguilera to raise money for the foundation. According to the Post however, “when several of the band members who accompanied the stars went to get paid, the checks bounced.”
The following lawsuit filed against Blige’s charity organisation in the Manhattan Supereme Court claimed they owed “a total of $US 167,252 for wages and penalties for nonpayment.”
The money owed supposedly can’t be traced, because FFAWN has no set office or contact details, despite their $US 250,000 loan from the bank and $US 60,000 raised from the sales of Blige’s My Life perfume, earnings and accounts that there is no concrete record of without their tax returns, which were not filed.
Blige has also received celebrity donations form the likes of Jay-Z, Gucci and American retail giant Walmart towards her ‘women’s empowerment’ charity, with no discernible results.
