Shaggy Gets ‘Dark’ After Report His Foundation Was In Danger Of Losing Charity Status
Dancehall megastar Shaggy has implied that he is in a “dark” mood, a day after a newspaper report surfaced stating that his foundation was behind in terms of filing mandatory audited financial statements for the last two years.
This afternoon, Shaggy made a pitch-black post on Instagram, supposedly reflecting his current state of mind, which he titled “Mood” in the aftermath of the Gleaner article titled “30-day ultimatum” which stated that his Shaggy Make A Difference Foundation (SMADF), which was established to raise funds for the Bustamante Children’s Hospital, had placed itself “in danger of being stripped of its charity status”.
The Gleaner article had quoted Errol Gallimore, registrar of the Department of Cooperatives and Friendly Societies (DCFS) as saying that the foundation was not currently registered as a charity organisation, as it had failed, up to last Friday, to renew its registration, which expired on February 17.
However, Shaggy has been reticent about the continuation of the Foundation, which raises funds via the Shaggy and Friends annual concert, following the publication of an article in November 2019 in the newspaper titled Busta’ still waiting – Hospital yet to benefit from $100m raised at 2018 Shaggy and Friends charity concert, which insinuated misappropriation of funds by the foundation and brought his name into disrepute.
The last Shaggy and Friends event was held on January 6, 2018, in Kingston.
A week after the article was published, a disheartened Shaggy, who was overseas preparing to honour his musical commitments which included a Little Mermaid Live production, flew to Kingston, to stage a press conference at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital in an effort to clear his name. He had said at the time that the imbroglio had not only left him feeling disappointed, but had plunged him into despair after his then nine-year-old daughter came to him and told him she knew he was going to the meeting at Bustamante “to tell them that you didn’t steal the money.”
The Gulf War veteran had shown bank statements explaining that the funds raised from the event, which were earmarked specifically to be used to equip the intensive care unit of the children’s hospital with additional beds, remained in the account untouched. Shaggy and the hospital board chairman, Kenny Benjamin, had also explained that despite the handing over of the symbolic JM$100 million cheque following the concert, the Foundation had to await the expansion of the ICU space at the hospital to facilitate the additional beds.
The Boombastic artist had also re-emphasized that it was never the foundation’s policy to hand over cash directly to the hospital, but rather to meet its needs via the procuring of items.
Following the publication of the article, Shaggy’s Dancehall compatriots and scores of fans, had taken the newspaper to task. The complainants, which included scores of the newspaper’s readers, felt the media house had treated the artist unfairly and slanderously.
In November last year, Shaggy, in an interview with Onstage’s Winford Williams, had said that while he was not ruling out staging Shaggy and Friends again in the future and was still making personal donations to the hospital, he was still discomfited about pushing the issue, based on what had transpired as a result of the Gleaner’s story.
“In the midst of you going in, you can’t be going in openly and trying to make this happen and try to jump hoops and yuh have anedda man a seh: ‘yow wi a guh throw him unda di bus’ di first chance yuh get. I have worked too hard for my brand and my career to risk all a dat fi dem suh,” he had said.
“I will still help; I am still raising money; I can cut cheques when I want to the hospital. But at the end of the day, I can still buy equipment and help out. But for us to be really going in like how we go in with what they pulled the other day, I am not comfortable that way,” the Rae Town native had explained.
Added Shaggy: “We not ruling it out either. It’s Shaggy and Friends; I am just the face of a bunch of people. We have a board you know. But what they did, didn’t just hurt me; it hurt them (board members) at the same time, and they felt slighted also.”
In Sunday’s article, The Gleaner said that the absence of the financial records had left the DCFS “in the dark about all funds being held by SMADF” including what it described as “the controversial $100 million raised by the charity in 2018…” and that the head of the organisation had said that he was unable to say whether the cash was there or not “because they have not filed”.
However, the article also went on to say that Shaggy’s representative Sharon Burke of Solid Agency, and Bustamante Children’s Hospital chairman, Kenneth Benjamin, had insisted that the funds are available, “safe and is earning interest”.