Did Madonna's Charity & The Kabbalah Centre Steal Malawi Funds?

Also, while the organization claimed on a 1998 IRS seeking tax exemption as a church (though the Centre’s website says, “Kabbalah is not a religion.”), that the Bergs have “taken a vow of poverty,” Newsweek reports:

Four of the five Berg families live in Beverly Hills mansions owned and remodeled by the center. Building permits alone on three of the Berg homes total $1.4 million. Karen and Philip’s house, the third the center has provided for them in the past decade, boasts a $30,000 swimming pool. The center routinely pays the expenses accumulated on Karen’s credit cards, which include a personal AmEx card with a $31,000 limit and, in the past few years, three Bank of America cards with a combined $81,000 limit. The center covers the Berg families’ food, furniture, clothing, gas, nannies, tutors, gardeners, housekeepers, personal assistants, and more exotic indulgences such as luxury cars, first-class flights, and spas. The Bergs’ lavish lifestyle, one executive says, is “100 percent subsidized.”

Of course, none of this is clearly spelled out on tax forms. Newsweek attempts to unravel the Centre’s finances, but all that emerges is that millions of dollars were shuffled into different accounts or simply vanished. One recent suit claims the Kabbalah Centre was the beneficiary of a $70 million Ponzi scheme, and there are several other suits accusing the organization of swindling wealthy followers. It seems most surprising that it’s taken the IRS so long to investigate the organization.

There’s similarly no account of what happened to the millions intended for Raising Malawi, which was founded by Madonna and Michael Berg. Though Madonna has publicly insisted that Raising Malawi was “a separate entity,” it is actually a subsidiary of the Centre, and Newsweek claims they’ve “always been inextricably intertwined.”

Recently the New York Times reported the findings from the Global Philanthropy Group’s report on the organization. The group, which “specializes in star donors who need a public-relations face-lift,” was hired by Madonna after Raising Malawi began crumbling. The report blamed Raising Malawi’s downfall on mismanagement by Anjimile Oponyo, the head the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, and Philippe van den Bossche, executive director of Raising Malawi from 2005 until October 2010. Newsweek counters the the two were scapegoats; their expenditures weren’t extravagant, and the Centre signed off on all of their activities. The Centre’s attempts to distance itself from the scandal may be explained by the recent hiring of Mark Fabiani, who has worked on damage control for Lance Armstrong, Kobe Bryant, and the White House during the Lewinsky scandal.

Newsweek‘s article is thorough, but it still doesn’t explain the most puzzling part of the story: Why celebrities become entangled in these cult-like religious (or maybe semi-religious) organizations. The article suggests the Kabbalah Centre’s leaders were motivated by greed, but Madonna certainly doesn’t need more money. It seems Madonna legitimately wanted to help the people of Malawi, but the account of the Centre’s shady business dealings provides no insight into why she chose to entangle herself with the Centre, or if she’s even realized that the organization’s practices are highly suspect.

Madonna’s Malawi Disaster [Newsweek]
Paul Haggis Vs. The Church of Scientology [New Yorker]

Earlier: IRS Investigates Madonna’s Charity & Kabbalah Centre
Kabbalah Distances Itself From Madonna
Madonna’s Malawi Plans Collapse In Financial Scandal