UFF
1990 Valdelin report – highly critical of UFF
2002 newspaper investigation
Revision in progress
UFF (Ulandshjaelp fra Folk til Folk) Sweden was reputedly the very first Teachers Group clothes enterprise outside Denmark in 1979. According to reports this was done on leader Amdi Petersen‘s orders ‘because Sweden has the best quality used clothes’. In 1990 a government-commissioned report found only two per cent of the money raised by UFF Sweden was spent on genuine independent development work. A hard hitting newspaper investigation in 2001-2 by Dagens Nyheter exposed secret links and hidden financial ties between UFF Sweden and the Teachers Group, suggesting that large sums were ‘going missing’.
NEWS AND LINKS
http://www.resdagboken.se/Web/Apps/Forum/ShowTopic.aspx?id=155&epslanguage=sv&t=596&r=755
http://www.sektfakta.com/sekter/tvind-uff-humana
THE VALDELIN REPORT
In 1990 Jan Valdelin of the financial consultancy Interconsult was commissioned by the Swedish development agency, SIDA, to write a report on UFF in Sweden and its ties with the supposed development agencies DAPP / ADPP in Africa. SIDA wanted to know whether it should give further grants to UFF . At that time SIDA was giving $2 million each year to UFF. Valdelin told reporters: “We are now wondering where that money has gone.”
The report was published in December 1990. Valdelin’s conclusion was that the Teachers group, through Humana, was keeping almost all the money: only two per cent of UFF’s Swedish income went to charity – the other 98 per cent stayed within the Tvind organisation. He also concluded that UFF was operating a for-profit business and was not sufficiently open about its activities.
In the course of his research Valdelin traced some of the money to a clothing company in Morocco linked to an offshore Cayman Islands company. SIDA stopped making grants to UFF as a result, but resumed in the mid-1990s after Tvind opened under a different name, UFF Sweden.
Studie av Sida:s Fraktbidrag till Föreningen U-Landshjälp fran Folk till Folk i Sverige. Interconsult (Jan Valdelin) – Stockholm 18.12.90
THE SWEDISH NEWSPAPER INVESTIGATIONS 2001-3
“Every time you put clothes into a yellow UFF-container or shop in a UFF’s second-hand store you support the building of the world wide empire that has been called Tvind. It is led by the mysterious Mogens Amdi Petersen, who was this spring charged with tax fraud and is wanted by the Danish police.” – Dagens Nyheter, 2002. In 2001-2001 the award winning Swedish journalist Nuri Kino wrote a series of articles in Dagens Nyheter, exposing UFF Sweden’s hidden links with the Danish Teachers Group and questioning the secret financial structure of the organisation, which appears to direct money straight away from charity and into the Teachers Group’s own offshore accounts.
UFF received money from Danish sect (Expressen, 22nd July 2001). An interview with Tomas Gregersen, UFF Sweden chairman, confirms money is transferred between UFF Sweden and the Teachers Group in Denmark, but Gregersen sees nothing to be concerned about despite the huge fraud investigation into the TG by Danish police.
Swedish taxpayers support cult leader (Expressen, 21st November 2001). The Swedish military and several companies are making large donations of ‘surplus’ goods to UFF Sweden for use in Africa. UFF’s Trond Narvestad admits not all the material can be accounted for.
UFF Sweden pays for Danish sect (Dagens Nyheter, 29th December 2001). IMPORTANT STORY. The Swedish UFF owes huge amoiunts of money and has not paid its taxes, despite earning huge sums from donated clothes it sells in Estonia and Africa. There have been 136 complaints and UFF is threatened with bankruptcy. UFF should have enough income, but most of the money disappears. Tomas Gregersen and Trond Narvestad insist UFF is ‘totally independent’ of the Teachers Group…..but “what looks like independent charity associations are in fact a centrally ruled business activity, led from the Danish head office.” DN also reveals a leaked fax from Trond Narvestad showing that UFF is run and controlled behind the scenes by Teachers Group members in Sweden.
UFF recruits young people into Danish sect (Dagens Nyheter, 29th December 2001). Journalists from Dagens Nyheter visit a squalid flat in Stockholm occupied by unpaid ‘development instructors’ working for UFF for free, and are confronted by high-up Teachers group ‘commissar’ Else-Marie Pedersen. “She says that journalists are the devil and that we are not allowed to talk to you.” one German boy says. “We are just some poor young people who has got into a jam.” An astonishing interview wuth Stina Fernstrom, a Swedish ex-member of the Teachers Group, who describes her escape from the cult.
Swedish Radio debate with Trond Narvestad and Nuri Kino, 21st February 2002.
UFF loses its authorised fundraising ’90-account’ (Dagens Nyheter, 19th March 2002).
UFF Sweden tied up with Danish fraud case (Dagens Nyheter, 20th March 2002).
IKEA is doing business with Tvind (Dagens Nyheter, 24th March 2002).
The Teachers Group hold on UFF Sweden tightens (Dagens Nyheter, 25th March 2002).
UFF Sweden starts up again – with Tvind money (Dagens Nyheter, 25th May 2003)
STORIES
Stina Fernstrom’s story.
Annelie Karlquvist’s story.
WHO’S WHO IN UFF SWEDEN
Up to date information required please
Teachers Group members in the past have included:
Else-Marie Pedersen – responsible for recruitment, now working in the USA at IICD Michigan
Trond Narvestad (vice chairman) – now a trustee of British registered charity DAPP UK
Tomas Gregersen (chairman)
Sven Dahne
Last revised 1st August 2010
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