Information to come
Archive for November, 2010
Fazenda Jatobà – a timber company in Brazil
On November - 26 - 2010
 |
 |
Fazenda Jatobà is a large agricultural estate at Correntina, in the Bahia region of Brazil
WHAT IS FAZENDA JATOBA?
Fazenda Jatobà, or Floryl, is a 92,000-hectare agricultural estate in Brazil, owned and operated by the Teachers Group. The TG bought the property for $12m from Shell Oil in 1994, making clandestine payments through a trail of front companies, offshore accounts and at least two fake charities. These transactions came to light during a Danish police investigation, and were central to the fraud trial of Amdi Petersen and other Teachers Group leaders in 2003-2006.
The central police allegation is that the Teachers Group used money designated for for charitable purposes, diverting it from a trust called The Humanitarian Fund and, it is suggested, also from some of Humana People-to-People‘s ‘foreign aid’ charities. Police say the Fazenda Jatobà is an entirely commercial operation with no charitable aim. The charges are outlined in the Danish police report of 2001.
A FARM THE SIZE OF NEW YORK CITY
Jatobà is huge – at around 350 square miles, it is about the same size as New York City, Berlin, or Dartmoor in the UK. It has a staff of 600. The plantation produces bananas, sugar cane, rice, citrus fruit, soya, eucalyptus and pine trees for export and sale in Europe, the United States, China and Brazil. Timber from Jatobà is exported through a Tvind-controlled wood export company, McCorry and Co, for fence posts and furniture. It may be used to supply the TG’s furniture businesses in India and Africa and its large Trayton furniture factory in China.
We have information about Jatobà’s wood trade with Portugal on file.
Fazenda Jatobà is in Bahia province, near Correntina, about 500 km north of Brasilia. It is also known as ‘Floryl’, ‘Fazenda Floryl’ or ‘Floryl Florestadora’.
FARM OR NATURE RESERVE?
The Teachers Group claims Fazenda Jatobà is a nature reserve and ‘a unique nature protection project’, including 30,000 hectares of ‘biological reserves’ and a carbon-neutral, ‘biomass’ power station. It lists it as a project under its ‘Gaia’ programme. Jatobà’s brochure states: “This is one of the few projects in Brazil, which to such a degree combines forestry of this magnitude, with preservation of natural areas and wildlife, and production of CO2 neutral energy….” [Source: Floryl brochure]
But these claims are challenged. In 2001 Danish police stated the ‘biomass’ power station was never an environmental project and the farm is just a business: “Floryl Florestadora YPE S.A. is a commercial enterprise, controlled by the defendants, where the profits accrue to the [Teachers Group's] treasury…..” 2001 Danish Police report
JATOBA AND GAIA
Despite this, the Teachers group continues to raise money for its supposed ‘environmental work’ using the name of Floresta Jatobà. Floresta Jatobà is one of the projects linked to the TG’s ‘Gaia Movement’ programme in the USA and Europe. The ‘Gaia-movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action’ charity based in Chicago collects and sells old clothes for unspecified ‘environmental projects’. Similar collections are made in the UK.
Jatobà describes Gaia is its ‘partner in environmental preservation and development’. However, this statement of a ‘partnership’ between Jatobà and Gaia is misleading – they are not independent partners. It is easy to show that Jatobà and the Gaia Movement Trust are both subisidaries of the ‘Tvind movement’, sister organisations fully controlled by the Teachers Group. We believe money raised through Gaia is used for the Teachers Group’s own purposes, not for environmental protection.
‘AID PROJECTS’?
Humana People-to-People has recently begun recruiting ‘development instructors’ at Jatobà, with the implication that the plantation is also part of a supposed ‘humanitarian’ programme. There are even indications that the Teachers Group has opened a ‘school’ there to attract gap year students. There is no clear evidence of any humanitarian aid or environmental programme at Jatobà: we believe students would likely become convenient unpiad labour
In fact, according to local people and journalists, the plantation is the very opposite of a humanitarian project: a commercial operation where migrant workers are allegedly severely exploited, denied union representation or health insurance, paid low wages, and often exposed to pesticides.
The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, reporting in 1996 the Teachers Group’s purchase of Floryl, commented: “No messing around with giving the land workers better housing, health care or education.”
Father Moacir, a priest in the local town, Posse, told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in 2000: “There is not a trace of humanity at Floryl. The Danes at Floryl suck their workers dry. They are a disgrace as employers. They don’t deal in humanity, but in the worst kind of capitalism.”
HOW WAS FLORYL BOUGHT AND PAID FOR?
Danish police alleged that between the late 1980s and 1996 the Teachers Group used “front men and companies” to secretly move money, including cash given for aid work to the charities UFF/Humana and donations to the Humanitarian Fund.
First, offshore company Tropical Farming Ltd (registered in Grand Cayman) opened negotiations with Shell. Other Tvind offshore companies (The Farmers Trust; Hobhouse Ltd; Fairbank, Cooper, Lyle…) then bought the Brazilian operating company Floryl Florestadora Ype SA.
Finally, money to complete the sale was transferred from other parts of the cash-rich Tvind economy, ‘the Teachers Group treasury’ and hidden companies or supposed charities in various countries.
From Humana/UFF and other Tvind enterprises, millions of dollars were passed to Guernsey-registered Tvind company Bahia Farming Ltd, which still owns Floryl today.
Millions of dollars were also allegedly moved as ‘charitable’ grants to a French-registered supposed ‘green charity’, La Societe Verte (also called L’Energie Eternelle), with an address in the Champs Elysee, Paris, before being transferred on to Floryl. According to police, the French charity was bogus – not a genuine charity, but a Tvind-controlled money laundering operation.
The police allegations in full
Almost every senior Teachers Group member played a role in this purchase
Four key ‘decision-makers’
In 2001 Danish police said four key members of Tvind’s so-called ‘economic directorate’, Amdi Petersen, Kirsten Larsen, Ruth Sejerøe-Olsen, Marlene Gunst, were ‘in reality behind the purchase.’ They authorised the spending and told others how to move money to achieve it. Petersen, Larsen and Gunst are charged with fraud and currently on the run from police.
Other Teachers Group members concerned
Lars Jensen
The manager at Floresta Jatoba (Brasil) Ltda is Danish Teachers Group member Lars Jensen. In 1992, he was simultaneously a founder of The Humanitarian Fund and an executive committee member of La Societe Verte, alleged by police to be a front company. That year, he signed a request from La Societe Verte for a grant of $2.5 m from the Fund. Mentioned in the 2001 Danish Police Report.
Kim Bonde Andersen
In 1992 he ran the Tvind company Tropical Farming, which initiated negotiations with Shell to buy the Floryl ranch. In the mid 2000s he was running a Teachers Group logging company in Siberia, Taiga Timber, closed down by the Rissian police. Now likely to be in Zimbabwe or Central America.
Sten Byrner
Member of Tvind’s economic directorate. In 1992 he was said to be jointly responsible for arranging the purchase of Floryl Florestadora YPE S.A. with Kim Bonde Andersen. Charged with fraud and currently on the run from police.
Poul Jørgensen
Senior Teachers Group member and adviser. In 1992, he was a lawyer acting for the Humanitarian Fund. Police say he ‘wrote letters to himself’ applying for grants for Floryl. Recently convicted of fraud in Denmark and sentenced to prison term.
Bodil Ross Sørensen
Member of Tvind’s economic directorate. The chairperson of the Humanitarian Fund in 1992. She approved the $2.5m grant to La Societe Verte.
Kirsten Fuglsbjerg / Christie Pipps.
Member of Tvind’s economic directorate. On 8th August 1994, she was the main signatory of the deal to buy Floryl from Shell. Charged with fraud and currently on the run from Danish police.
Tove Birkøe. The Teachers Group manager of Floryl Florestadora YPE S.A
WHO RUNS FLORYL TODAY?
The key director of Floresta Jatoba (Brasil) Ltda is Birgitte Krohn.
Krohn is a hard-core member of the Tvind Teachers Group, and has played a part in many Tvind offshore companies, secret trusts and financial enterprises. She frequently earns a mention in the 2001 Danish Police report.
In the 1990s, Krohn was a board member of IFAS, the so-called ‘Institute for Reasearch and Applied Science’. According to Danish police, this was not a research body at all, but a Tvind financial front created to launder money into the ‘Teachers Group Treasury’. She was also a director of Kirchheiner Bros, one of the main Teachers Group ‘money pots’, based in the Channel Isles.
She escaped prosecution in the 2003-2006 Danish trial, but was one of eight Teachers Group leaders separately charged with money laundering in Belgium in 2002, although charges were dropped.
Krohn is today a director of Jersey-registered Fairbank, Cooper, Lyle (FCL), the Tvind offshore company that owns the Teachers Groups’s plantations. She is also one of the TG members behind TG Pacifico, the massive new $10 million Tvind ‘headquarters building’ at San Juan de las Pulgas, in Mexico.
COMPANY STRUCTURE
The Floryl plantation is today ultimately owned by a Jersey-registered Tvind company, Fairbank, Cooper, Lyle (FCL). This is a major Tvind offshore company and agribusiness that owns most of the Teachers Groups’s plantations. The company structure:
Fairbank, Cooper Lyle
(Registered in Jersey)
I
Bahia Farming Ltd
(Registered in Guernsey)
I
Floresta Jatoba (Brasil) Ltda
(Brazilian operator)
I
Floresta Rio Veredao Ltda
Floryl Florestadora Ype SA
(Local operating companies)
THE STORY OF RIMA INDUSTRIAL S/A
Rima Industrial S/A, a Brazilian manufacturing company, has taken the Teachers Group to the Brazilian High Court in a dispute over $6 million of timber bought from Floryl which they say they never received.
Rima executives met Birgitte Krohn and Bolette Gunst (left) to discuss the wood deal. However in late 2005, a company spokesman contacted us. He wrote: ‘We would like to receive as much as possible information about the dirty business of Tvind , because we paid them US $ 6 million for wood from the Floryl project and they simply decided not to deliver the wood.”
Rima executives travelled to Europe to meet Danish police and also contacted Interpol. The company made a complaint in the Brazilian courts and took the case to the Brazilian High Court. We do not know the outcome of the case.
One Rima official told us they had heard the money was transferred out of Brazil to Belize where it was ‘needed’. Krohn and Gunst also showed them pictures of the ‘resort’ under construction in Mexico. Both Krohn and Gunst are involved with the Teacher Group’s $10 million new development, TG Pacifico, at San Juan de las Pulgas.
PRESS REPORTS
Ekstra Bladet, Denmark (22nd September 1996): Tvind shops for new plantations. By Kurt Simonsen. A detailed account of Tvind’s ‘buying spree’ of land in Ecuador, Belize and Brazil and the conditions for workers it employs.
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden (10th June 2000): What is UFF hiding on its plantation in Brazil? By Bengt Lindström. “Profit seems to have replaced humanity as the aid organisation’s driving force.”
Berlingske Tidende, Denmark (June 29th, 2001) Stolen document reveals Tvind-fund. A document indicating Tvind’s ownership of the Jatoba plantation and revealing its true purpose – logging – was stolen from court files by one of the defendants in the Danish fraud court case against Tvind.
VEJA, Brazil (11 de julho de 2001) Uma fazenda misteriosa. Madeireira bancada por entidade filantrópica dinamarquesa agride leis brasileiras na Bahia Flávia Varella (in Portuguese)
Do you have any information about Humana or the Teachers Group? Please tell us.
Last updated: 26th November 2010
Artur’s story: ‘They’re crazy about money’
On November - 26 - 2010
Artur’s story: ‘they’re crazy about money’
On November - 26 - 2010
|
|
This story was sent in by a Brazilian volunteer
Independence Day
In 2009, 15th of April, I Arrived at CICD [The College for International Co-operation and Developement, in the UK] where I met ‘the strangers’.
They look like human beings, but actually they are Aliens who want to control all of the world, a very smart group of Aliens!!! Seen whats going on with the earth, they did a “Organization Not Governamental” Humana People to People using the issue of unequalilty social, poverty, diseases all those weak points of our society, like this people feel guilty, so it’s easier to hide the reality behind. With social projects in (undevelopet countries) they do “help“, but actually they are studying people all around the world and using them, to get money and power.
With volunteer workers they don’t need to spend money with employeers, first volunteer pass for a brainwash in Colleges, CICD is one of that colleges and is in UK, also they have one college like CICD in every continent of the world. There volunteers work must of the time in a illegal way, selling magazines and asking donnation on the street (must of the cities in UK it’s not illegal to do that, so we must keep attetion with the police mans)
‘Austin Powers’
First aliens I met in CICD looked like that: ‘Austin Powers’ is Always in Action and Marie Powers is always Tooo… with her computer of the power the manipulating, she is always trying to get new people to be part of the College, Aliens have great technology, she can start to do the brainwash by computer. And she or he or ( I dont know if they have sex) really resemble Austin Powers.
‘The Ghost’
AHHHHHHH be careful because there is a GHOST in CICD too, the ghost is white and really can be dangerous (‘L’…..the GHOST ). The ghost loves to SCREAM on face of people, loves to put people down and see them crying with her DISGUSTING words. She has an AMAZING energy, but dont worry she has already died and can’t hurt you, she is too unbearable that the king of hell doesn’t want her there, so now she has nothing to do thats why she came to CICD because there (she or he) can disrupt people’s lives. Sometimes yes she can hurt you, because Madagascar is not part of Africa…
‘The Dog’
(Rolf rolf rolf rolf…) (He or she) is always around this place sniffing and watching if we are working, he takes care of the storage, place where they keep the second hand clothes, also where volunteers work to pack those clothes and sell it after, so he pees in those capsacks to mark his territory, thats why clothes there smell so bad!! he is used to talk with people BARKING and Snarling, he growls alone all the time, common habit of an old dog.
‘The Cat’
The cat (She or He) looks to be very calm and normal, almost all the time, but she is a cat and when you are not waiting for, the cat attacks. She is always around those capsacks as well, exactly as a cat hunting very attentive, caring, slow… If you find a nice phone from the bags of clothes she can steal it from you without you realising …Also a wallet from class room.
‘The Trucker’
There is a chef who looks like a TRUCKER driving all of those strangers and making plans and tricks to find more people to play with their dreams, and use them as slaves “o o ohhh no no volunteers”, “and go GO GO to work” (go and make a good beg to people on the street, tell them that this money will HELP CHILDREN TO HAVE A BREAD TO EAT) “GO Go!!! Do not came back with less than 50 pounds (PUt in CICD account), (BREAD FOR THESE CHILDREN WE LEAVE FOR MANY FLYS IN DINNER HALL). GO go and beg for money because otherwise you can’t realise your dreams to go to Africa or India and be a volunteer (a VOLUNTEER)…….”
Are we sure that we are volunteers (DIs, Development Instructor) to make the life in the world more equal or we are volunteers who want to travel and know nice places; see misery of food, health and give more value to what we have at home, are we really volunteers or we just want a nice CV with an INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION.
MAYBE WE ARE JUST AFRAID TO SEE THE REALITY, afraid to give up!!!!!!!! and go where, so far from home? (THEY DONT PAY US; AT LEAST THEY GIVE YOU FOOD AND ACCOMMODATION; OUT IN THE REAL WORLD YOU ARE FUCKED WITHOUT FOOD AND SHELTER ), or afraid to give up and show weakness, or give up and leave all the hard work and money that we did for those strangers. SO its a trick so hard to leave, and there we stay we lie (or hide) the reality to get a promotion, we lie to people on the street to sell them magazines and we lie to ourselves, because we just want to leave cicd as fast as we can and go to Africa to really do something.
BUt we Arrive in Africa and discover that the projects are almost all corrupted, or you are there as a white only to show people how responsible the organization is, or you have many nice ideas and projects but people, money our your weak mind (like mine) doesn’t help, so just give up to do something else. Or we don’t give up because in this place we meet the BEST people we ever met before, people with many dreams and really powerful energy, spirit to change the world, we meet friends, brothers and sisters, boyfriend and girlfriend a (SAFADOS E SAFADAS, SURUBA), and we just dont want to leave those people. YOU SEE HOW MANY TRICKKKKKssss.
I know how fucked you are when you realise HOW THEY PLAY WITH your DREAMs, how fucked you are when you realise that you help that fuck big organization to grow more and more and do not change anything, just the life of some corrupted people. BUT then we stop and look for these POOR PEOPLE THAT WE CALL TEACHERS, what this fucking crazy people get with all what they do (I DONT KNOW) I REALLYYYYY WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND, COULD CHANGE MY LIFE IF THEY EXPLAIN, WHAT HELL THEY GET, they seeing people coming and leaving, and they dont know anything about Africa, they dont know what is to change with their work, they fuck their mind, became crazy and do not know what love means, friendship, dreams, hope and they really dont know what THE WORD VOLUNTEER MEANS.
One day with ‘K’ and ‘L’ (Teacher) I had a personal meeting in the middle way of the course, I didnt have enough money and study. They told me like that:
“You have to show up with 1200 pounds also your behavior is not good for us, you have to change!”
Me: “OK my behavior I can change but I dont have this money.”
They: “Artur we know that the families in South America are very close you can ask our family to give you the MONEYYYY…”
Me: “No I cant, I can change my behavior but I cant ask then all this money”
‘L’: “You know Artur why the oven in the kitchen its not working? Because you didnt work hard selling magasines.”
After I wrote a letter to them, and I said that we are only machines to make money for them, and if I need to change my behavior they should change theirs also, because they need us volunteers as we need them. After i had an another meeting.
‘K’ was screaming ( the way she likes) told me that she dont “give a shit“ the way I think and they dont need us voluteers, years by years is the same… And is not a teenager (me) that will tell her that she needs to change after 10 years working hard…
After that I did a fundraising plan, with conditions to change the team and I should be alone , they accepeted my crazy plan to work 7 days a week making 50 a day in the coldest winter in 30 years. So I just decided to leave when I was doing fundraising in hedon, when after 4 hrs selling magazines I had 15 pounds, and I should get with 4 month 2700 pounds, I thought smoking in the cemitery of the church:
“With 2700 pounds I can go to Africa work 6 month where I want and travel more than 5 month in Africans countries.”
They are really crazy about money. I have never seen people so bad like then, without any human feeling…
They are really crazy I think, but some weeks after they came with a nice job to take care of a teenager from Denmark, or go to work in Newcastle, sitefind and we just forget so many bad things they did and will do, better shut up and do… They always will be there…
Do you have any information about Humana or the Teachers Group? Please tell us.
Posted: 26th November 2010
Politicians say support for UFF ‘is outrageous’
On November - 16 - 2010
|
|
Third in a series of articles about UFF Norway. Other articles.
From Vårt Land
Tuesday 26th October 2010
By Bjørn Olav Nordahl and Turid Sylte
Høyre (The Conservative Party of Norway) and KrF (The Norwegian Christian Democratic Party) are demanding that development minister Erik Solheim explains the aid allocation of 15 million Norwegian kroner to UFF in Angola.
Yesterday, Hans Olav Syversen (KrF) sent several questions to development minister Erik Solheim regarding U-landshjelp fra Folk til Folk (UFF). This means that Solheim has up to six working days to reply to his questions in parliament.
Syversen is demanding an answer to why the Norwegian embassy in Luanda has given 15 million kroner to a UFF project in the province of Bié in Angola, as reported by Vårt Land yesterday. Norad has consistently turned down all applications from UFF Norway for money to similar projects.
The best word to describe this allocation of money, is ‘baffling’, said Syversen, parliamentary deputy and member of the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs.
Høyre: Outrageous.
Petter Gitmark, Høyre’s spokesperson on foreign aid, described the grant from the embassy as ”absolutely outrageous”. He said Norad had characterised UFF as a less than serious organisation, ”first and foremost a channel for money”, ”without popular support”, and that ”serious questions can be asked regarding the organisation’s sustainability.”
He stressed that this was a harsh verdict from Norad.
Gitmark emphasised the fact that Norad are Norway’s leading experts on foreign aid, and that only political decisions range above Norad’s judgement calls. Gitmark said that this was something the embassies should consider.
“There may be differences between UFF Norway and UFF Angola, but I still think this matter should have been presented to Norad,” said Gitmark.
As far as Gitmark is concerned, this matter is another example showing that allocations (of money) from Norwegian embassies abroad must be subject to closer scrutiny. He stressed that 15 million kroner is a lot of money.
“This is the responsibility of Erik Solheim. He has to sort this out, and I will expect him to do so. To begin with, he should start gathering information,” Gitmark said.
Must be careful
Syversen added that all the unrest that has followed Tvind and UFF made it particularly necessary to be careful and to have a well thought-out set of standards.
He reiterated that the problems related to UFF and Tvind are not new problems, and that the embassy cannot hide behind lack of information. The projects in Angola do not receive any support from the Danish Agency for Development Cooperation, Danida.
“I assume the Danes feel that there is little support going to the real work here,” Syversen said.
Frp’s spokesperson on foreign aid, Peter N. Myhre, said the allocation of 15 million krone to UFF’s sister organisation in Angola seemed untidy.
“It seems to me that the one hand does not know what the other one is doing”, he told Vårt Land.
Disagreeing.
The assistant Director of Norad’s Civil Sociaty Department, Gunvor Skancke, said he appreciated that this allocation can seem confusing.
“You will need to speak to the embassy to find out why we are not on the same page here. We have done thourough evaluations, and have consistently turned down any applications”, Skancke told Vårt Land.
“Our experience with ADPP Angola has been a very positive one. We are satisfied that the organisation has delivered on the projects they were given support for”, said Alida Endresen, minister councellor at the Norwegian embassy in Angola.
“THE EVALUATION IS WORTHLESS”
Peter Gitmark (Norwegian Conservative Party) said it was poor judgment to hire Eva Marion Johannessen to do the mid-term evaluation of the Angolan project that received 15 million kroner in aid.
Bad judgment.
As Vårt Land reported yesterday, Johannessen had spoken out against critics of UFF in a newspaper article. When she sent her report to Norad, she said that she had “again seen evidence that ADPP (UFF’s sister organization in Angola) does act!”
“It is extremely poor judgment to use people with these types of connections. This report is worthless”, Gitmark said. He called on development minister Erik Solheim to see this side of the ADPP Angola support as well.
“It sounds like there is a conflict of interest here. There are clear guidelines in the Administrative Law. It states, amongst other things that, “should there be other reasons why your impartiality can be called into question, an assessment into ones impartiality should be performed.” The Foreign Office and the Embassies should practice this as well”, said Peter N. Myhre.
Hans Olav Syversen (Christian Democrat) was also critical: “I do not find it reassuring that someone so involved with UFF is given the job of vouching for said organization to the government. A reference you have written yourself is, shall I say, less than valuable”.
Do you have any information about Humana or the Teachers Group? Please tell us.
Last updated: 16th November 2010
Norwegian embassy gave millions to UFF in Angola
On November - 4 - 2010
|
|
Second in a series of articles about UFF Norway and the Teachers Group. Other articles.
From Vårt Land
Monday 25th October 2010
By Bjørn Olav Nordahl and Turid Sylte
■ UFF’s affiliate organisation in Angola has been allocated over $4.3 million in aid in recent years. ■ In Norway, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) has consistently rejected UFF’s applications. ■ Currently, no one can explain why UFF in Angola has sent portions of development funds on to Switzerland, as is common practice in the organisation.
FIRST AND FOREMOST A MONEY CHANNEL
20th July 2005: The Norwegian ambassador in Angola Arild Oyen lifts the pen and signs the contract. The official’s signature ensures ADPP-Angola $2.6 million in aid over the next four years. The money will be used for a teacher’s training school in the province of Bié. ADPP in Angola is the equivalent to UFF in Norway, and ADPP is a member of the umbrella organization FAIHPP in Switzerland, just like its Norwegian counterpart UFF. The money allocated in Angola comes directly from the Norwegian Embassy in Luanda. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is not involved.
Differing viewpoints.
“You’ll have to talk to the Embassy in Luanda about this project,” says Jan-Petter Holtedahl, senior adviser
with Norad’s Department of Civil Society.
Holtedahl is one of those who know UFF-Norway best, as he has processed a number of applications from the Norwegian aid organization. Norad has denied every UFF-Norway application seeking support for its
development projects. Vårt Land has reviewed all available documents over the last ten years in which
UFF has asked for Norwegian aid funds. Time after time, Norad turned UFF down, most recently last year. Meanwhile, UFF affiliate ADPP-Angola received over $2.6 million in Norwegian aid for a project which on paper precisely resembles that which Norad had rejected in Norway, namely a teacher training school project.
“The only thing I can say is that UFF has received a thorough and proper review from Norad. We stand behind the decisions we have passed,” said Holtedahl. He declined to speculate about why UFF is treated differently at home than abroad.
“They stated in the application that UFF is primarily a monetary channel (…) One can question whether the
organization has the necessary administrative capacity to carry out a project, and what it contributes of value. There are also serious questions about this project’s sustainability, costs, etc.”
Such is the wording of the refusal letter Norad sent UFF on 19 December 2007. UFF had applied for nearly $1.3 million for another teacher training project in Guinea Bissau. This project is confusingly similar to what the Norwegian Embassy in Luanda is supporting with $2.6 million in the province of Bié in Angola. But then UFF in Norway gets a thumbs down from Holtedahl at Norad.
Holtedahl points out that the UFF lacks popular support in Norway, and that UFF is unable to provide a significant contribution to the projects other than money, which would come from Norad.
“Lacks justification”
“It should be added that UFF’s claims of popular support in Norway are very poorly reasoned. The claim that the organization’s clothing collections and two second-hand shops give half of Norway’s population the opportunity to help improve the lives of poor people in the South lacks justification,” writes Holtedahl. He concludes: “Such statements create the impression of a lack of seriousness, and in turn weakens the application’s credibility.”
Focused.
The rejection from Norad was appealed by the UFF, but the decision was not overturned. Vårt Land has examined all the available project applications by UFF in Norad’s database. The Guinea-Bissau application is only one of several that have been rejected by Norad in recent years. The only money that Norad has given to UFF is $8,500 in support of an art exhibition including art from Africa.
“At UFF, we focus on improving our people’s foundation and adding value to projects, which are the arguments Norad has used in its final rejection of said application and more recent applications,” states Rosa Fried, a spokesperson for UFF Norway.
Big Oil money.
The Norwegian Embassy in Luanda is not the only one who has supported UFF’s affiliate in Angola. The Norwegian oil company Statoil has since 1999 provided approximately $1.7 million to ADPP in Angola. As recently as this year, ADPP received $130,000 from Statoil, which has Angola as one of its focus areas abroad. As a result, Norwegian aid money/development funds amounting to at least $4.3 million has found its way to an organization that is closely related to the Tvind movement in Denmark. Several Tvind leaders are wanted by Danish police, charged with tax fraud and embezzlement.
Both UFF-Norway and ADPP-Angola are thus members of the umbrella organisation FAIHPP. FAIHPP is located in Switzerland and is registered in the Mercantile Register of Geneva. One of the requirements of FAIHPP membership is that organisations pay 6.5 percent of collected funds as a membership fee.
For example, UFF-Norway paid $121,000 to FAIHPP in fees during 2009. But so far, nobody at the Norwegian Embassy in Angola can confirm whether parts of the Norwegian development funds have been heading the same way.
“Regarding the 6.5 percent to the Humana Movement, I can not remember it ever being discussed with ADPP while the application was being reviewed. Neither do I see anything in the documentation to indicate this,” said Alida Endresen, Councilor of the Norwegian Embassy in Luanda.
Unresolved
“So you can not confirm whether parts of the $2.6 million ended up in Switzerland?”
“I have been in contact with Rikke Viholm, who is the leader of ADPP in Angola. She said that the payment of 6.5 percent to the Humana Movement is not automatic. Payments to the Humana-Movement should be in accordance with the benefits the Humana Movement provides to specific projects.”
“Both before and during the Angola project there were police raids, arrests and court trials involving Tvind, in addition to strong criticism from defectors. Can you elaborate on how the embassy could allocate over $2.6 million to ADPP, which has strong ties to Tvind?”
“As far as I know ADPP-Angola has not been reported or investigated for anything, financial defaults or otherwise. Nor has the Humana-Movement been convicted of anything, as far as I am aware. I see no reason to enter into a polemic about the Humana Movement, I abide to the existing rules that govern the management of the Embassy aid funds.”
Statoil’s head of information Bard Glad Jakobsen says of its humanitarian commitment in Angola: “We conduct regular visits to the projects and provide feedback after the visits. The contracts contain anti-corruption clauses and provisions ensuring that the projects operate in accordance with applicable legislation, international rules and well within the group’s own ethical requirements.”
Box
UFF (Ulandshjelp fra Folk til Folk) Norway is a member of the parent organization The Federation of Associations Connected to the International Humana People to People Movement (FAIHPP).
Humana People to People Movement has 35 member organizations worldwide.
ADPP is Angola’s equivalent to UFF in Norway, and it is also linked to FAIHPP.
The Humana People to People Movement is closely linked to Tvind, a Danish left-wing educational organization known through media allegations that it operates as a cult using psychological terror against its employees, as well as being investigated for fraud of government funds.
THE ASSESSOR WAS A SUPPORTER OF UFF
by Bjørn Olav Nordahl and and Turid Sylte
The Norwegian Embassy in Angola hired Eva Marion Johannessen at Educare as a consultant when the project of UFF’s affiliate organization was evaluated midway through the process. Johannessen has previously worked with UFF in Mozambique and is a major supporter of the organisation.
On 17 October 2007, Johannessen sent an email to Arne Larsen of Norad, delivering a midterm evaluation of ADPP’s teacher school project in Angola. The project is supported by over $2.6 million from the Norwegian Embassy in Luanda. “This is further proof of how ADPP has power to act”, reads the text accompanying the report. Johannessen’s evaluation is a contributing factor in helping the ADPP receive the rest of the Norwegian project funds. The report is very supportive of the ADPP project. Johannessen believes the work is impressive” and the results are “promising.”
Past with UFF
Johannessen, who runs her own sole proprietorship, is no stranger to UFF and ADPP. She has previously worked with the ADPP in Mozambique. Johannessen’s CV reveals that from 1997 to 1998 she worked as a consultant and examiner at ADPP’s Teacher Training College in Chimoio.
In a letter to the editor of Aftenposten dated 2 November 2001, Johannessen came out against media reports critical of Tvind. The Norwegian consultant called the attacks a witch hunt. She writes that defectors from the movement are used indiscriminately as ammunition against the organisation’s projects. “I’m not even in Tvind and its group of teachers, but I have thorough knowledge of some of UFF’s projects operating in Angola and Mozambique,” writes Johannessen, a PhD.
Hangs up
”What are you looking for, exactly? I am very skeptical of everything written about ADPP,” said Johannessen when Vårt Land called. “And I think it is rude to ask me if this disqualifies me. If I had felt that this past experience would disqualify me, then I would not have taken the assignment. I am very concerned with the ethical rules, as my turnover is very low so I am dependent on it. I interpret this as rude.”
Vart Land then responded with “Do as you like. I have a couple of quest-…”
Johanneson then interrupts with, “I think we’ll stop here…”
“I have a few more questions…”
*Click*
Counselor Alida Endresen at the embassy in Angola stated the following about Johannessen:
“It is my assessment that she has delivered a professional report. I was not aware that she had previously been involved in the press debate about Tvind. However, I can’t see that it necessarily makes her incompetent to make a professional assessment of ADPP’s project in Angola.”
Do you have any information about Humana or the Teachers Group? Please tell us.
Posted: 4th November 2010
“Perfect fit for fraud”: how ‘Humana’ uses its charity shops in Norway to divert millions from ‘foreign aid’
On November - 1 - 2010
A series of articles in Vårt Land, Norwegian newspaper
1. “A Perfect Fit for Fraud”
2. “Norwegian embassy gave millions”
3. “Politicians say support for UFF ‘outrageous’ “
When Norwegians dump old clothes in ‘UFF’ charity bins or buy garments from a hip second hand charity shop called ‘Underground’ in Oslo, they assume they are doing something to help the poor in Africa. After all, that’s what it says on the posters. And it’s certainly what the shop’s owners want you to believe.
But in a series of detailed articles in a leading Norwegian newspaper, Vårt Land, the charity behind the shops and bins, UFF Norway, is now conclusively revealed to be a huge ‘swindle’.
In an investigation conducted jointly with www.tvindalert.com, Vårt Land mounted a thorough probe into several companies and a ‘foundation’ all linked to UFF Norway, and all operated by the same small clique of people. What they found is a secret, sophisticated racket to launder money through clever accounting away from ‘foreign aid’ and into private hands.
Two-thirds of the money raised ‘for humanitarian work’ by UFF never reaches the poor. It is diverted before it even reaches Africa. Large sums are transferred as ‘membership fees’ to a company in Switzerland. Hundreds of thousands more ‘leaks away’ from foreign aid through loans and property rents. Tens of millions have been spent on a private ‘palace’ in Mexico. And despite all this, UFF Norway is accepted as a ‘bona fide charity’ by Norwegian charity regulators, because of a loophole in charity law.
Tvind Alert and the Vårt Land journalists followed the money trail through a ‘cash laundering machine’ and a 72-year old wanted cult leader on the run from European police forces, to a multi-million dollar ‘desert palace’ in Mexico.
How much more?
This is not an isolated swindle. In fact, UFF Norway is just one small outpost in a very large corporate structure of similar ‘aid charities’ and used clothes recyclers all over the world which are run by the very same mysterious organisation – a cult-like body called the Teachers Group – and include such well known names in Europe and the United States as Humana People-to-People, Planet Aid, Gaia and U’SAgain, and charities in Africa and India with names such as DAPP, ADPP, Hope, TCE, Child Aid and Children’s Town. Altogether, these connected bodies handle millions and millions of dollars of ‘foreign aid’ – and they are now getting huge sums of money from major aid donors like the US government, USAID and the Bill Clinton foundation.
Although many official bodies choose to ignore this, it is a well established fact that all these ‘foreign aid’ enterprises are collectively run, acting together in a single economic system. If UFF Norway is a ‘swindle’, then what of the other Teachers Group all over the world operated on identical terms – with secret companies, double accounting, the same people who authorise donations being on the board of recipient bodies, and other accountancy scams? How much money is being bled internationally from foreign aid budgets by this one organisation?
Vårt Land: “UFF: Pengevask og luksuspalass” (with link to full article in Norwegian)
Danish TV item on Vart Land investigation (video)
OUR DOSSIER ON THE TEACHERS GROUP
