<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;img alt=\"0516_raffles-van-exel-with-whitney-houston_pcn\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2012/05/16/0516-raffles-van-exel-with-whitney-houston-splash-2.jpg\" /&gt;One of &lt;strong&gt;Whitney Houston&lt;/strong&gt;'s close friends -- a mysterious man who's been widely accused of supplying the singer with coke before her death -- is declaring war on media outlets that ran with the drug story ... and now, he's on a crusade to clear his name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The friend -- an enigmatic celebrity sidekick named &lt;strong&gt;Raffles van Exel&lt;/strong&gt; -- tells us, he is \"neither the architect nor the culprit of the sudden demise of Whitney Houston.\"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raffles was with Whitney in the hours before she died at the Beverly Hilton hotel in February -- and there were widespread reports strongly insinuating he was the singer's secret cocaine supplier.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were other reports suggesting Van Exel was also the one who snapped the infamous picture of Whitney's body in a coffin ... and sold it to a tabloid newspaper.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But for the first time ever, Van Exel is adamantly denying all the reports -- and has begun taking aggressive legal steps to save his reputation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Van Exel has started firing off cease and desist letters to media outlets reporting any nefarious connection between him and Whitney's death -- demanding full retractions asap ... or else.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Van Exel -- who describes himself as a \"private consultant to the stars\" -- has also been linked to &lt;strong&gt;Michael Jackson&lt;/strong&gt; around the time of the singer's 2005 molestation trial, as well as jazz legend &lt;strong&gt;George Benson&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No one really knows who he is or what he does.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!-- relatedlinks --&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/17/whitney-houston-raffles-van-exel/>