Jennifer Lopez accused of receiving $10m from Russia

DHAKA, July 14: A human rights group on Friday accused pop singer Jennifer Lopez of receiving more than $10 million for ‘serenading crooks and dictators’ from Russia and a number of former Soviet republics.

‘J Lo has repeatedly mingled with and entertained some of the world’s worst thugs and their cronies,’ said Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen in a statement to the press. ‘The ‘Jenny-from-the-block-who-doesn’t-Google’ clarification may be credible in one instance, but it beggars belief in light of a pattern of repeated behavior.’

A representative for Lopez could not be immediately be reached for comment, reports Hollywood Reporters.

Lopez first stirred up rights activists with a recent performance at the birthday celebration for Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who is accused by the Human Right Foundation of running one of the most repressive governments in the world in his Central Asian nation. Lopez’s publicist Mark Young responded to press reports after the singer’s performance, saying ‘had there been knowledge of human rights issues of any kind, Jennifer would not have attended.’

‘What those covering this story have missed is that J.Lo and her management have misled her fans and the public,’ Halvorssen alleged on Friday.

Human Rights Foundation says that its research shows that in July 2011, Lopez was paid $1 million by Uzbek industrialist Azam Aslamov to perform at the wedding of his son. One of the guests at the wedding was Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov. Earlier, Lopez was paid $1.4 million to perform at the birthday celebration in Moscow of allegedly corrupt Russian businessman Telman Ismailov, according to Halvorssen.

In September 2012, according to HRF, Lopez was booked by the dictatorship of Azerbaijan to perform at a FIFA soccer tournament for a reported $2.5 million. While in the capital city of Baku, the foundation alleges, Lopez’s representatives met with the dictator’s wife and began negotiating a contract to put together a music festival in Azerbaijan in partnership with Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency. The event was initially planned for September 2013 but has been rescheduled to 2014.