Wanted by police, a fugitive from justice – the ‘guru’ who
founded the Teachers Group, Tvind and Humana
 |
Name: Mogens Amdi Petersen
Date of Birth: 9th January, 1939 Nationality: Danish Occupation: Fugitive from Danish police Current whereabouts: unknown, but probably Mexico, Zimbabwe or Brazil |
WHO IS AMDI PETERSEN?
Born Denmark, 1939, Amdi Petersen is the inspiration, founder and leader of the Teachers Group, Tvind and Humana People-to-People. Aged 70, he is still the supreme boss, in personal control of the entire organisation and all its subsidiary enterprises.
Following police charges for fraud and tax crime, Petersen is a fugitive abroad. A charismatic and inspirational guru-like figure much admired by followers, he is also widely regarded as a cult leader and even a crook. He is wanted by Danish police and is believed to be hiding out in Mexico, Zimbabwe or Brazil.
BIOGRAPHY
Early years
Born Mogens Amdi Petersen, 9th January, 1939 in Ringe, central Denmark, the son of a teacher. He graduates in 1961 as a secondary school teacher from Haderslev teacher training college (centre of back row, left).
After army service, in 1963, he gets a job as a maths teacher at Kroggårdsskolen secondary school, Odense.
The counter-culture 1965-67
Petersen early adopts the mid-60s counter-culture. In 1965, he is suddenly dismissed from Kroggårdsskolen school, allegedly for having long hair. (Reports emerging much later have suggested that, in fact, his dismissal had more to do with liaisons with female pupils.)
Around this time Petersen moves with friends into a large house at 1, Hunderupvej, Odense (right) – one of Denmark’s first hippie-style communes (‘Huset’). This is the crucible for many radical political ideas.
The hippie trail 1967-9
In 1967 Petersen and several friends decide to take a trip around the world, a journey that inspires the later ‘Travelling Folk High School’ concept of learning by experience. Together, they buy an old bus and drive it overland to India.
From there they travel together on to Hong Kong, Australia and Tahiti. On route, their hippie style and radical politics earn them few friends: they are ordered out of Australia, expelled from Tahiti and put on a ship home to Europe.
After a second, shorter, trip, Petersen returns to settle in Denmark.
In 1969 he is briefly arrested and jailed by German police for throwing a rock during an anti-nuclear demonstration.
The first alternative school, 1970
With a growing circle of supporters, Petersen next creates an educational ‘movement’ which he declares will change the world, at a 1969 meeting in a secondary school near Svendborg. The aim is social revolution through communal life, shared work and money, and education by experience.
The first permanent ‘Travelling Folk High School’ (Den Rejsende Folkehøjskole) opens in 1970 on Fanø island. The school later moves to Tvind, near Ulfborg.
The movement was a roaring success: over the next ten years, new Travelling Folk High Schools open across Denmark. Petersen became a counter-culture celebrity.
The Teachers Group
Petersen soon organises his growing body of supporters into a Maoist-style revolutionary secret society called the Teachers Group (Laeregruppe). This is a body with no official existence. Only committed graduates of the Travelling Folk High Schools are invited to join: they promise to share everything, and work communally as ‘teachers’ to advance the movement.
He creates a complex structure of directorates and appoints himself chairman of the most important committees and communal bodies, securing himself undisputed leadership. Hundreds of ‘teachers’ are now at his command.
About this time Petersen begins to show signs of paranoia: he believes he is a target for assassination, eavesdropping and investigation. Secrecy within the Teachers Group is stepped up. Members are ordered to destroy old photographs and private papers.
Faelleseje, 1977
In 1977 the Faelleseje (‘common ownership’) trust is founded, the first of many private bank accounts and trusts run by the Teachers Group and controlled by Petersen. Petersen is one of 131 signatories.
This marks the end of the Teachers Group’s life as an alternative social experiment and the start of its future as a financial enterprise. At around this time, Tvind also starts up many commercial operations – old clothes collections (under the Humana and UFF charity marks), sponsored ‘foreign aid’ programmes, flea markets and fundraising drives.
The Missing Years, 1979 – 2001
In late 1979, following a hostile interview in a Danish newspaper, Petersen suddenly disappears from public life. He is said to be ‘living privately abroad’. He is registered at an address at Tvind’s headquarters in Ulfborg, Denmark, but is never seen in public.
He relinquishes all formal posts with Tvind, the Travelling Folk High School and Faelleseje. As time passes rumours circulate that he is dead, incapacitated or even drugged.
In fact, later police investigations reveal that throughout this time he has been living secretly in the Caribbean, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Florida. He has a beachside property in the Cayman Islands and a luxury apartment in Miami (left). Senior Teachers Group colleagues know where he is, but are sworn to secrecy. He visits Denmark frequently for meetings, travelling incognito.
During this time Petersen is developing the Teachers Group into a highly profitable international business. Under his direction, using cover companies, offshore accounts, fake charities and hot money transfers, manipulating the loyalty of its members, the Teachers Group secretly amasses a huge property and business portfolio.
This is when the Teachers Group buys its enormous agricultural landholdings in the Caribbean and Central America, luxury properties in the USA and Africa, ocean going yacht, huge ranch in Brazil, and opens factories and timber companies in China and Malaysia.
Arrested, 2002
In around 1999, several former Teachers Group members go to the 
Danish police with serious allegations of financial fraud. Danish TV airs their allegations. Police start an investigation and in 2001 mount a raid (right) on Tvind schools and offices. They issue an international arrest warrant for Petersen.
In February 2002, Petersen is arrested by a vigilant FBI agent at Los Angeles International Airport, en route between Africa and Mexico. He is carrying two passports with different names, and a briefcase full of documents.
He is initially held in Kern County Jail, Bakersfield, California. The first pictures of Petersen for 22 years show him in a yellow prison suit, boarding a bus (left). In late 2002 he is extradited to Denmark to face fraud and tax evasion charges.
On trial for fraud, 2003 – 2006
In 2003, Petersen and seven other Teachers Group leaders go on trial at the district (lower) court in Aarhus, charged with financial crimes – fraud and tax avoidance in connection with charity law, amounting to about $25m. The trial is the biggest and most expensive fraud trial in Denmark for many years. Police concentrate on just one Teachers Group financial fund, exposed by whistleblower Hans la Cour, the Humanitarian Fund.
The trial is a fiasco. After hundreds of days of complex evidence, the judge finds Petersen not guilty of the specified charges.
The Danish public prosecutor immediately announces an appeal.
Whereabouts today
Petersen avoids a second trial by skipping the country. In late 2006, before the Danish government can serve new prosecution papers, Petersen, together with four other defendants, secretly flees Denmark to become a fugitive abroad.
On the basis of known information about the Teachers Group, he is most likely today hiding out in the organisation’s large complex in Mexico, its international headquarters in Zimbabwe, or its ranch in central Brazil. Police are still looking for him, but he is far out of reach.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Unusually tall, bespectacled. Clever, persuasive, even charismatic and, to many, difficult to resist; inspirational to some, a bully to others.
Never married (the Teachers Group is opposed to bourgeouis conventional marriage) but according to the Danish press is close to a large group of senior female Teachers Group members, referred to as ‘Amdi’s women’. His ‘principal girlfriend’ is Kirsten Larsen, ranked equal first at the head of the Teachers Group. Larsen is also a fugitive from Danish justice.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Books
Three excellent sources of information on Amdi Petersen are Frede Farmand’s Mesteren fra Tvind (The Master from Tvind, 2003), Jes Fabricius Møller’s På sejrens vej (On the Road to Victory – The story of the School Co-operation Tvind and its creator Mogens Amdi Petersen, 2001), and Hans la Cour’s Den Rejsende (The Traveller, 2002)
Unfortunately all are in Danish.
Petersen is mentioned in several other books and anthologies that cover Tvind. See our books page.
Web pages
Jes Fabricius Møller’s Brief Information on Tvind includes a short biography, timeline and a summary of recent news.
News articles
Ekstra Bladet, Denmark, (9th May 1996): Mystery Surrounds Amdi. By Kurt Simonsen
The Guardian (9th June 2003): Enigma of the Leader. Ten years ago the Guardian first raised doubts about the Danish organisation behind a chain of used-clothes charity shops. Now Mogens Amdi Petersen, the mysterious, Svengali-like figure behind the organisation is to stand trial in a £15m fraud case. By Michael Durham
Have we made a mistake? If you have a factual correction or new information, please tell us.
Last revised 31st October 2009
