Five years ago doors opened at the Mary J. Blige and Steve Stoute Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now, known as FFAWN, a charity to help women. Now, according to the New York Post, the R&B diva's organization, which she began with marketing executive Steve Stoute, has come under fire for failing to pay its vendors, file taxes and repay a $250,000 loan to TD Bank.
The Post reports:
It failed to file its federal tax returns for 2010, which were due last November, along with its annual state-charity registration. The charity has now been hit with two lawsuits — one claiming the group musicians at its 2011 fund-raising gala and another saying it defaulted on a $250,000 loan, The Post has learned. Blige, known as the “queen of hip-hop soul,” touted the charity's success on the “Today” show in late 2010, saying, “I sent 25 women to college.”
She was promoting her fragrance, My Life, which sold a record 60,000 bottles on the Home Shopping Network during its six-hour debut in 2010. One dollar from each sale was supposed to benefit The Mary J. Blige and Steve Stoute Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now, known as FFAWN …
Where the $60,000 from the fragrance sale and other donations went is a mystery. The group's 2010 annual report has nothing on its finances for that year.
Read more at the New York Post.