The Red Cross Misappropriated $500M in Donations for Haiti Earthquake Relief, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the American Red Cross has misappropriated over $500 million in donations intended to aid earthquake victims in Haiti.

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According to the 43-page lawsuit, the Red Cross began soliciting these funds after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, killing more than 300,000 people, devastating the country’s infrastructure and leaving over 1.3 million people homeless. The nonprofit humanitarian organization continues to raise funds with the stated goal of assisting Haiti in its recovery from the 2010 earthquake and several subsequent natural disasters, promising donors that their contributions will be and have been used to rebuild roads, hospitals and schools and provide essential services to victims, the case says.

“However, none of these promises were fulfilled,” the complaint contends.

Instead, the Red Cross diverted these donations to projects and purposes entirely unrelated to Haiti or their intended recipients, the suit alleges.

For instance, the filing claims, the defendant allocated $150 million of the donated funds to pay off its financial deficit. Internal reports also reveal that a significant portion of these funds have been directed towards administrative overhead and used to pay executives’ “exorbitant” salaries, the lawsuit contends.

Named as co-defendants in the suit are the current and former CEOs of the American Red Cross, the organization’s Board of Directors, Chairwoman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Haitian Red Cross.

“[The defendants’] conduct demonstrates a reckless disregard for the lives and welfare of those they claimed to serve, as well as for the trust placed in them by millions of donors worldwide,” the suit scathes.

The lawsuit accuses the Red Cross of knowingly misrepresenting in its promotional videos, radio advertisements and commercials that donations would directly benefit the people of Haiti. In reality, the defendants had no intention of using these funds for the promised purposes, the filing argues.

“Evidence shows that the day after the earthquake, [the defendants] convened a meeting to discuss their strategy for leveraging the disaster,” the filing alleges. “At this meeting, [the defendants] determined that the crisis in Haiti presented an opportunity to raise significant funds for the organization.”

Although the Red Cross has issued several reports over the past 14 years asserting that funds have been used for building hospitals and reconstructing homes in Haiti, there remains a lack of verifiable evidence to confirm these expenditures, the case contends.

“Instead, the only documented financial benefits appear to have been increased compensation for Red Cross executives in both the United States and Haiti,” the suit says.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who contributed funds to the Red Cross between 2010 and 2024 in connection with Haiti and the recovery efforts following the Haiti earthquake(s).

The suit also seeks to cover anyone affected by the Haiti earthquake(s), including those who lost property or family members and were intended recipients of the over $500 million raised by the defendants.

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