TVIND ALERT

Fazenda Jatobà is a large agricultural estate at Correntina, in the Bahia region of Brazil



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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.”



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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



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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.



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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)



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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.



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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)





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Last updated: 26th November 2010



The $10m Complex at San Juan de las Pulgas




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The Teachers Group has opened a massive new $10m property complex in a remote area of northern Mexico – big enough to be its new world headquarters.




NEWS AND LINKS


San Diego Reader:     Mysterious Danish group builds exotic compound on Baja Coast

by Michael Waterman | Published Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010



http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=44047&page=2




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The impressive complex, complete with cathedral-like meeting area, cloisters and a futuristic ‘steeple’, is said to include a boardroom, exhibition space, gymnasium, squash courts and open air swimming pool.   It is on a 740-hectare estate, said to be big enough to house 300 residents, in Baja California, .

The complex is known as ‘TG Pacifico’ (alternatively the Centro Autónomo de Desarrollo Global, CADG – Independent Centre for Global Development).   It is located at San Juan de las Pulgas ranch in remote countryside 50km south of the city of Ensenada, on the Pacific coast south of Tijuana.

Watch a slideshow of San Juan de las Pulgas

The large agricultural ranch bordering the Pacific Ocean was bought from Mexican landholders between 1999 and 2003 by a Mexican-Danish company called TG Pacifico. However the development is already controversial, amid claims of cheating, malpractice and corruption.

Two TG members known to have been very active in the development of TG Pacifico are Bolette Gunst and Birgitte Khron – both known to be very senior members of Tvind’s financial directorate.

Bolette Gunst, a Tvind ‘Teacher’ and graduate of the Necessary Teacher Training College, was a board member of the notorious Humanitarian Fund before its dissolution by Danish financial authorities in 2001. (She is the sister of Marlene Gunst, one of the Teachers Group leaders accused of fraud in the 2003-6 Humanitarian Fund fraud case.)

Birgitte Krohn is also a TG member regarded by Danish financial police as central to the Humanitarian Fund affair – she was a board member of IFAS, one of the alleged subsidiary ‘environmental front companies’ that police claimed was used to launder money. She was cited in the 2001 Danish police evidence, but never charged. In 2002 she was one of eight TG members seperately charged with money laundering in Belgium, but acquitted for lack of evidence.

In this case, Amdi Petersen and other TG leaders were accused of fraud by diverting charity money to buy property in Brazil. Not guilty verdicts were returned in 2006 – but Petersen and other defendants are still wanted by Danish police.

Petersen is believed to spend much of his time at Las Pulgas.

The TG Pacifico project is one of the biggest ever started by the Teachers Group-Tvind-Humana, and shows that despite two court cases and massive adverse publicity – and its claims that it is an impoverished humanitarian movement that supports the poor – the organisation still has vast resources to deploy on big plantations and showcase developments.

In Mexico, the TG is already spending more on construction work at its new Mexican ranch than it spent buying the enormous Floryl plantation in Brazil – $10 million dollars, according to information passed to Humana Alert and confirmed by papers found on the Internet. The Mexican company behind the huge development is TG Pacifico SRL DE CV.

Amdi Petersen was reported to be changing planes between Mexico and London when he was arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles in 2001, fuelling suspicion that the Teachers Group had a big project in the country. There have been suggestions that Humana People-to-People could move its HQ from Zimbabwe to Mexico when the dictator of the African country, Robert Mugabe, dies. Mugabe is a long-time friend and supporter of Petersen’s Tvind movement.

The construction project in Mexico – a building of at least 8,000 sq metres and possibly as large as 25,000 sq metres – was so big that it originally inspired rumours among local people that Tvind is opening a mine – it appears the Teachers Group is building down as well as up, suggesting that Tvind is excavating huge cellars under the property. Locals have said the ranch is guarded by ‘men with arms’.

Like so many Tvind projects, the new development comes riddled through with controversy and allegations of fraud, malpractice and corruption. According to one account sent to Tvind Alert, the TG has been allowed to proceed with the development in spite of Mexican laws forbidding ownership of beachside properties by non-Mexicans, and ignored restrictions on drilling for water.

There are even allegations the TG does not have legal title for more than half the ranch. According to one informant, Gunst and Krohn acquired 557 hectares from an intermediary, who had recently left prison, who did not have legal title to the property – leaving the original owners dispossessed. “People call them ‘The European Mafia’. There is no redress because they buy everybody – delegates, lawyers, authorities, more people than your mind can imagine,” our informant alleged.



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Associated TG companies

TG Pacifico SRL DE C.V
Mexican-registered company.


San Juan Prestación Profesional S. de R.L. de C.V
An informant writes: “People who work in the San Juan de las Pulgas property are paid by this registered Mexican company. It looks like this company is only used to pay the workers of the facility. Also, these guys have an office in downtown Ensenada (calle septima), that’s the registered address for the company.”



More information please




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Some sources



SkyscraperCity – web page in Spanish (skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/t-202884.html). The web page is now unavailable but a visit to the cache reveals many details of the ‘megaproyecto’ construction project (and photograph) in an exchange between officials.

Lores Rodríguez y Cía., S.C. – Mexican firm of Public Accountants and Business Consultants with offices throughout Mexico (http://www.lores.com.mx/ingles/index.html). The web page http://www.lores.com.mx/boletin/htmail/dinamarcaing.html indicates the company has one Danish client – TG Pacifico SRL DE CV. No further information.

Banamex – Mexican banking site (http://www.banamex.com/esp/noticias/20050418historico.html#). The news for 18th April 2005 has an intriguing item, Invertirá TG Pacífico 10 millones de dólares en Ensenada, but unfortunately the link does not work.



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Last updated 30th August 2010




Do you have information about Tvind in Mexico?  Please tell us.




Clothes collection boxes in the USA




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HOT MONEY

U’SAgain is not a charity, 501(c)3, or community group, but a commercial company, owned by a Jersey-registered, Belize-based offshore property company, Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle Ltd.  This company is central to the Teachers Group’s financial network.

Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle is a company controlled by the Tvind Teachers Group and its main business is landholdings, fruit farms and commercial plantations in central America. It is a majority shareholder of U’SAgain and probably also owns US-registered companies U’SAgain 2000, U’SAgain 3000 and TS Recycling.

Alleged ‘hot money’ transactions involving this company were investigated by Danish police and described in the Danish police report outlining the fraud case against the Teachers Group in 2003-6.



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A good joke at the expense of U’SAgain in New York City




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WHO RUNS U’SAGAIN?

The joint CEOs are Janice Bostic (far left) and Mattias Wallander (left). Both are members of the Teachers Group.

We know that Janice Bostic is personally involved, together with several other Teachers Group members, in a big network of US-registered companies. Many of these US-registered companies are concerned with property.

Mattias Wallander, a Swedish-born Chicagoan, recently told Seattle Kiro 7 TV he was a member of the Teachers Group, but said it has “nothing to do with criminal allegations in Denmark”. He described the Teachers Group as a community of humanitarian-minded people, adding: “That doesn’t have bearing on U’SAgain, which is my business.”



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TOP US MEDIA REPORTS




19th February 2010

WGAM-TV, Illinois – U’SAgain red donation boxes meet resistance

US broadcaster covering Tri-State parts of Illimois, Missouri and Indiana reports. The City of Quincy almost immediately banned the red collection boxes due to a city ordinance violation.



26th November 2009

Seattle: Mayor calls for removal of for-profit donation bins

Follow through to TV investigation of U’SAgain by KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne. Action by local mayor and Attorney General.



17th November 2009

‘Millions In Clothing Donations Diverted From Charity’ – US TV investigates U’SAgain

An investigation by Kiro 7 TV, Seattle, into Teachers Group clothes collector U’SAgain concludes the public is being deceived because U’SAgain is falsely masquerading as a charity. The Teachers Group-controlled enterprise has recently installed 600 clothing donation boxes in the Seattle area. Investigative reporter Chris Halsne writes: “Drop the clothes in a red U’SAgain bin and you’re essentially giving away cash to a multi-million dollar enterprise …. The company cashes in on peoples’ preconceived notions that all bins represent charity.”

The material includes a revealing video interview with U’SAgain CEO Mattias Wallander. Wallander admits he is in the Teachers Group, but claims no association with the Teachers Group members prosecuted for fraud in Denmark. But Kiro TV says financial records ‘indicate otherwise’.

Story on KiroTV.com

Extended interview with Mattias Wallander



15th July 2009

Do you know where your donation is going?

TriCounty News, Kimball, Minnesota, report by Jacqui DuBois



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OTHER REPORTS

Sleepy Eye, Minnesota: Clothing box will support the Brown County DAV – local charity replaces controversial U’SAgain box (4th November 2009) Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch, MN

New Richmond, Wisconsin: Red boxes, red flag? Donation boxes placed by for-profit business. (30th October 2009) New Richmond News

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“U’SAgain bins say, ‘We are a commercial company doing something good for our environment. Together we can reduce waste and conserve.’ By ‘commercial,’ they mean they are a for-profit company, and what they do with the clothes is sell them. The items are not going to charity as some may think.” Tri County News

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Last revised: 21st October 2010

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PLEASE EMAIL CORRECTIONS TO feedback@tvindalert.com

Wanted by police, a fugitive from justice – the ‘guru’ who
founded the Teachers Group, Tvind and Humana

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Have we made a mistake? If you have a factual correction or new information, please tell us.

Last revised 31st October 2009

Commercial used clothes company based in Corby

More than 1000 boxes across UK




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Not a registered charity.    This is a commercial used-clothed company.   Not coincidentally, it was started by the Teachers Group in 1998, just a few months after a previous registered charity Humana UK, was closed down by the Charity Commission.     Planet Aid UK is entirely operated and controlled by the Teachers Group, just like Humana was, although as a registered company it is out of reach of charity regulators.    We believe very little of Planet Aid’s profits support charity work, with a large proportion instead being transferred into the Teachers Group in unacceptably high ‘operating costs’, commercial transactions, loans, and payments to an account in Switzerland.

Planet Aid is run by Teachers Group member Torben Soe.  His wife, Birgit Soe, runs a nearly identical company based in the West Midlands, Green World Recycling.    Both are linked to a TG registered charity DAPP UK, and to the CICD school near Hull.




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NEWS




2006:  Asda evicts Planet Aid from its supermarkets

ASDA has evicted a network of clothing recyclers from its car parks after discovering that the companies behind donation bins are not registered charities. The supermarket sent a legal letter to Planet Aid, a company linked to the mysterious Danish organisation Humana People to People, asking it to remove all bins … some had appeared overnight without permission. (The Times, 4th September 2006)






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Last updated 30th July 2010

Do you have informnation about the Teachers Group in the UK? Contact us.

Planet Aid Inc

Clothes collection boxes in the USA

Links have been restored

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The Teacher’s Group’s leading used clothes and ‘volunteering’ enterprise in the USA, and a leading source of its global income.  Planet Aid Inc is linked to the three US colleges, IICD Massachusetts, IICD Michigan, and CCTG and can also be linked to the other recycling enterprises in the group, Gaia, U’SAgain and Garson & Shaw.

We can also link Planet Aid inc directly to a number of US property companies, and large scale financial transactions regularly occur between it and the complex network of companies and shell companies in the Teachers Group financial network.   Planet Aid is a registered 501(c)3 and is tax exempt.

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DID YOU EVER WORK FOR PLANET AID IN THE USA?

WERE YOU EVER A PLANET AID VOLUNTEER?

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO WAS – OR IS NOW?

PLEASE HELP US EXPOSE THEM

Planet Aid is is becoming larger and more influential as a used clothes and volunteering charity in the United States, despite its well-documented links with financial malpractice and shady business dealings. Planet Aid is affiliated with and controlled by an international body called The Teachers Group or ‘Tvind’. One of the leaders of this controlling body is in jail for financial crimes, several are in hiding from the police and others are firmly associated with property deals and offshore money movements.

We need your help. The reason is that Planet Aid is today very widely accepted by town halls, school boards, state legislatures and even the US government as a bona-fide aid organisation. It is receiving official support and large sums of public money. We are challenging this uncritical acceptance on the basis of Planet Aid’s explicit connection with Tvind Teachers Group (which it publicly denies), police documentation, statements already sent to us over several years, and other evidence in the public domain.

We know what we are looking for and how easy it is to prove our case. But despite media exposure, nobody is listening. Now we need testimonials from anyone with recent (say within the last three or four years) experience of Planet Aid or its directly associated organisations (Garson & Shaw, DAPP, ADPP, etc), either in the USA or abroad, who can help put together our dossier on the Planet Aid ‘money-go-round’. This could refer to anything relevant to Planet Aid’s finances, its conduct as a charity, its management in the US, its use of foreign labor, its linked colleges, or to activities in the field in developing countries.

If you have any information to pass on, please write us a brief 1-2 page testimonial and mail it to feedback@tvindalert.com. We will add it to our growing private dossier and pass it on to organisations that need to be properly informed. We will also soon put our dossier in the public domain. Generally, to be credible our dossier requires information to be accurately sourced. Please include your name and contact details (not for use or publication without express consent). Material will be treated as strictly confidential unless explicitly agreed otherwise. If you have any questions, write to us first.

THANK YOU

The Tvind Alert team of professional and ‘citizen’ journalists

Hot Money: Five ways Planet Aid moves money into offshore accounts

Some further information on Planet Aid

OUR DOSSIER ON THE TEACHERS GROUP

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HOT MONEY

Five ways Planet Aid secretly moves money to the Teachers Group

Tvind Alert article

“Planet Aid is not recognized as a charitable organization by any of the most respected watchdog organizations in the United States or the world, and … just the thought of someone using the needs of poor children in Africa as a front to get rich is repulsive.” Green Cotton Blog

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WHO RUNS PLANET AID?

Here are the names of the directors and officers listed in the Planet Aid 2003 Annual Report.  Almost without exception, we know they are members of the Teachers Group.   Several of them are also connected in one capacity or other with other Teachers Group enterpises in the US – colleges, clothes collections, property or other business.

Fred Olsson (general manager)

Olsen asserts that Planet Aid Inc is an independent charity and has nothing to do with the Teachers Group or Amdi Petersen. In fact, Olsson has worked within the Tvind Teachers Group for many years. In 1980 he helped set up UFF in Sweden.

Mikael Norling (chairman) – Planet Aid founder. A TG member and close associate of Amdi Petersen, notorious for his support of Cambodian tyrant Pol Pot in the 1970s. He now fundraises for Planet Aid on Wall Street.

Ester Neltrup (president) – co-founder, and a former principal of IICD Massachusetts.

Jytte Martinussen (treasurer) – also educational director of IICD Massachusetts

Eva Nielsen (director) – also runs Gaia

Bob Dzere (director) – also program director at IICD Michigan

Soren Hofdahl Teachers Group member in charge of the plantations on St. Lucia and a director of the UK registered company Mt Lezard Estate Ltd since around 1993.

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NEWS

January 2008

Better Business Bureau issues damning report on Planet Aid

The BBB is a US advocacy group with branches in every state that promotes high standards among businesses and charities. To be accredited by BBB, a charity must meet 20 criteria. In 2007-8 Planet Aid applied for accreditation but failed 3 of the 20 requirements.

The BBB report from January 2008 went through each requirement and explained why Planet Aid didn’t meet the acceptable standards of a charity.

2006

American Institute of Philanthropy gives Planet Aid an F grade

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TOP US MEDIA REPORTS

May 2009

Fox TV investigates Planet Aid in Washington (Fox TV)

4th April 2009

A Scam of Planetary Proportions? (The Bollard.com) Inside the Planet Aid scandal. By Craig Idlebrook. This excellent and comprehensive expose of Planet Aid appeared in a US online newspaper.

12th February 2004

The Green Bins of Gaia (Chicago Tribune special investigation)

By David Jackson and Monica Eng. While this very well informed two-part special focuses on Chigaco’s Gaia recycling bins, it also provides a detailed analysis of the whole Teachers Group and makes clear the links between Gaia and Planet Aid.

The Commons, Windham County, Connecticut (1st June 2006): Planet Raid? by Les Kozaczek. According to Planet Aid’s 2004 tax return, the corporation listed gross sales of $9,968,728 and expenses of $9,689,682, even though all of the merchandise Planet Aid sold was acquired for free.” The report also notes that “the hairsbreadth profit margin that Planet Aid recorded on this tax return, and the typically small margins it has filed over the years” have concerned local people. (No longer on line)

Lawrence Journal-World, Kansas (2nd April 2006): Investigation into Planet Aid. (No link available)

The Pitch, Kansas (12th May 2005): Boxed In? Used-clothing collectors Planet Aid say they’re not in a cult By Bryan Noonan.

Baltimore City Paper (20th October 2004): Adventures in the Rag Trade – Do Clothes Dropped Into Planet Aid Boxes Support International Aid or an International For-Profit Scheme? By Erin Sullivan.

Boston Globe (April 7th 2002): ‘Planet Aid’s Work Draws Worldwide Scrutiny’. By Farah Stockman.

Boston Magazine (Oct 2000): ‘Mission Control’ – in-depth feature on the Teachers group. “In the USA In 1970, a group of Danish hippies set out on a mission to save the world. Thirty years later, some of the young acolytes they recruited claim the group has become a cult, amassing riches in the hundreds of millions of dollars under the direction of an elusive and mysterious founder. Now, with recruiting efforts reaching into the United States, ex-members say the mission is no longer to save the world but to conquer it. North American headquarters? Massachusetts.” By Jay Cheshes

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WITNESS

Michael Lehr’s story: Collections, manager, Planet AId, Philadelphia, 2006-7

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LINKS

Better Business Bureau report (January 2008)

American Institute of Philanthropy (2006)

Green Cotton Blog

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Last revised: 26th February 2010

Do you have information about Planet Aid? Please tell us.

Humana People-to-People

Clothes collections and volunteering

Links have been restored




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Humana People-to-People has placed tens of thousands of clothes bins throughout Europe.

• In 1997, after a fraud investigation, Humana UK and two Tvind-run schools in Britain were closed down by the British Charity Commission.
  
• Humana France ceased collections in 1996 after French authorities declared it was a cult, and removed its tax-exempt charity status.
• In Belgium, Humana was placed on a parliamentary list of cults in 1996.
• The German government and BER, a consortium of 70 Berlin aid charities, both declared in 2009 that Humana Germany was ‘not serious aid organisation‘ and should not be supported.

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‘The Federation for the Associations Connected to the International Humana People to People Movement.’

This is a ‘federation’ of 36 constituent organisations. Member organisations are required to pay an annual ‘membership and program facilitation fee’ that we calculate to be around 5.5 per cent of their income from grants and donations.

Since around 2001 the ‘Federation’ has been based at an address in Switzerland which it shares with a mysterious trust called ‘Humana and Planet Aid Financial SA’.

Switzerland is of course a notorious centre for hot money transactions. See: Hot Money – Planet Aid Inc.

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Humana Headquarters, Zimbabwe

Read about this expensive complex here

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Do you have information on a TG company? Tell us.

Last updated: 25th February 2009

‘Gaia-Movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action’

Clothes collections

Linke have been restored

Material needs updating

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‘Gaia Movement Trust’ is a name attached by the Teachers Group to various ‘charity’ used clothing collection businesses. In the United States, it is a company based in Chicago which is putting out hundreds of clothes boxes throughout the USA.  In Britain, students are invited to take part in the ‘Gaia movement’, leafletting and sorting old clothes. Gaia advertises that it collects ‘for the environment’, but there is no evidence that it supports any actual environmental work and it is associated with a Swiss-based private trust.




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TOP US MEDIA REPORTS




12th February 2004

The Green Bins of Gaia (Chicago Tribune special investigation)

By David Jackson and Monica Eng. A very well researched two-part special focusing on Chigaco’s Gaia recycling bins, that also provides a detailed analysis of the Teachers Group and exposes the links between Gaia and Planet Aid.   Gaia’s clothing collection business flourishes in Chicago, but its promises to promote the environment are questionable. Meanwhile, the organization’s leaders are under criminal indictment in Europe.



December 2006

Behind the Green Box (CBS 5, San Francisco)

TV report by Anna Werner.   In this season of giving, a new charity in the Bay Area is welcoming volunteers and clothing donations through its green-colred bins with the friendly Gaia label. But behind the green box, investigative reporter Anna Werner uncovers a Danish organization. (No longer online)




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GAIA’S CLAIMS






This is the message that appeared on Gaia boxes when they began appearing in around 2000.



The Gaia-Movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action



What exactly is behind this strange name, and why is there a Swiss flag on the box?   When we investigated in 2000, we found the Gaia-Movement Trust to be located in a rented room at the World Trade Centre building in Geneva, Switzerland.   Switzerland is of course a notorious base for secret ‘hot money’ transactions, and the Teachers Group has several trusts and companies here.

We spoke then to a lawyer handling their affairs.  Mail was then being forwarded to a Humana address in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, also a mail box.   This man told us then there was no sign of any charity work. With one exception, all but one of the trustees were Teachers Group members.



The ‘environmental projects’



What are these environmental projects?  How much of Gaia’s profit is actually spent on them?    We are extremely sceptical of Gaia’s claims to be any kind of genuine environmental movement.

Recent postings on the Gaia-movement web site, for example, claim one of the beneficiaries is an environmental reserve in Brazil.    In fact, the property they refer to is commercial a fruit and eucalyptus plantation, Fazenda Jatoba, owned by the Teachers Group through its Jersey-based offshore company Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.    As far as we know there has never been an independent audit of any of Gaia’s  ‘environmental projects’.  We feel it is likely that any money or ‘volunteers’ despatched to Brazil, for example, would simply contribute to running a commercial farm.

In the past, supposed environmental projects investigated by the police have turned out to be elaborate fronts for money laundering.   According to the 2001 Danish police report, the Teachers Group used  front companies and bogus ‘environmental charities’ (that did not exist at all) in Paris, Malaysia and Fiji to illegally transfer money out of charity funds to buy property.       According to this report, that the Brazilian plantation is simply a commercial enterprise.



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THE SWISS TRUST

Gaia-Movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action is registered as “a private Swiss ‘association’, founded in May 1998 with an address in an office building near Geneva airport.

All but one of its ten founding trustees are senior Teachers Group members. They include two, Jonas Israel and Søren Sørensen, on our list of the top 30 Teachers Group members.    Israel runs a forestry company in Malaysia, McCorry Limited,  and Sørensen manages commercial plantations in Belize.

Hot money: In Britain, Gaia and Green World Recycling Ltd (both Teachers Group entities) pay royalties to the Swiss trust for the use of the Swiss flag logo.



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PIRATING OF ‘GAME MANAGEMENT AFRICA’




Game Management Africa by Mike La Grange is a paperback manual on how to manage, feed and transport wild animals.  It is rather a practical volume, printed on cheap paper, full of photographs of elephants, wildebeest and hippopotami – the sort of reference book you might find in the office of a zoo.  Mike La Grange is (or in 2000, was) a well known safari park manager in Zimbabwe.

A copy of Game Management Africa was found by chance by a contact at one of the clothes recycling companies in the UK in 1999.    The striking thing about this copy of the book is that it is prominently badged on the front cover with the Gaia-Movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action logo and Swiss flag, with the words ‘A GAIA Movement Production’.   It gives the clear impression that the book is a joint production between Gaia and Mr La Grange.

The trouble is that it is not.     It now appears that the edition of the book is a ‘pirate copy’ – or at least that Gaia’s claims to joint authorship are misleading.     We managed to contact Mike La Grange.  Over a crackly mobile phone line from Zimbabwe, he confirmed that he is the suthor of the book.    But he had never heard of GAIA and he could not recall any agreement with anyone to publish a special copy of the book.     After a moment’s thought, however, he recalled having met ‘some Danes’ in Harare, who had paid him a certain amount of money to reproduce the material.

We do not know why Gaia-Movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action would want to claim authorship of a book on game management.   Being apparently joint authors of a scholarly work on game management would, of course, be a very useful tool for fundraising and gaining credibility for an organisation claiming to be an environmental and wildlife charity.

The only connection between wildlife in Zimbabwe and the Teachers Group that we are aware of are reports that there is a small animal park at the Humana People-to-People headquarters in Shamva, Zimbabwe.



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GAIA IN THE USA




Who runs Gaia in the USA?




Chico, California: The Gaia clothing bins may be easy to use, but their environmental impact has been questioned (News Review, Chico.com, 19th November 2009)

Sonoma Index-Tribune (14th Sept 2004)   Bins Fund Siskiyou Nonprofit. By Sarah Berkley. Story questioning link between Gaia clothes bins in California and CCTG.

Wisconsin State Journal: Recycling Group Meets Resistance (7th April 2002)

The Independent on Sunday (UK):   Charity’s recycling claims mislead public (17th December 2000)



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Do you have information on a TG company? Tell us.

Revised: 28th February 2010

College for International Co-operation and Development
Winestead Hall, near Hull, UK




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A Teachers Group ‘DRH’ residential college, advertising widely on the Internet as providing ‘training’ for young people wishing to volunteer in Africa. There have been many complaints about poor or non-existent teaching and low-grade facilities, and students have also complained of being obliged to work long hours unpaid collecting and sorting used clothes for commercial companies.   We believe this is part of the Teacher’s Group’s system for making money.   CICD is applying to become accredited by UK authorities – we will challenge this.



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WERE YOU A STUDENT AT CICD?



DID YOU FEEL EXPLOITED, USED OR MISINFORMED?

DID YOU TRAVEL TO ENGLAND EXPECTING TO BE TRAINED AS A CHARITY WORKER,
BUT THEN FOUND YOU WERE JUST TREATED LIKE A SLAVE?

WERE YOU PRESSURED TO WORK WITHOUT PROPER DOCUMENTS?

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE ELSE WHO WAS?



We at Tvind Alert would like to hear from you.  We are renewing our dossier of information and complaints from present and former students at CICD. We intend to challenge CICD’s official accreditation by UK authorities as a college certified to accept foreign students, on the grounds of the many complaints, allegations of misleading information, use of students as cheap labour in commercial clothing businesses, and questionable financial practices. Please send us your story in confidence to feedback@tvindalert.com.   See more information below.





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What is CICD?

Winestead Hall is a former hospital. It was bought by the Teachers Group in the 1980s and was run until 1997 as ‘Winestead Hall School’, a small boarding school for ‘emotionally deprived’ teenagers in need of residential care. Staff were not trained or qualified social workers and in 1997 following investigations by Humberside Social Services, the police and the Charity Commission, the school was closed down.
The Teachers Group immediately reopened the building as ‘The College for International Co-operation and Development’ (CICD), offering training to 16+ young people wishing to volunteer in Africa, with a new head teacher but some of the existing staff.





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STUDENT WALK OUTS AT CICD




Six walked out in 2000

Ten walked out in 2001

Twelve walked out in 2007







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WITNESS



Artur’s story (CICD 2009-2010)

‘They’re crazy about money’. A satirical account of life at CICD by a Brazilian volunteer. ‘They look like human beings, but actually they are aliens … studying people all around the world and using them, to get money and power…..’



Valentina’s story (CICD 2009) – in English and Italian

Well, I just came back from the CICD in Hull with the worst experience feedback of my life I can say eh eh…..I totally confirm all of the facts that you wrote about….and it’s going even worst…I was on the GAIA program, leafleating 9 hours per day outdoors in the snow, with no toilet, got sick and they bring me to doctor and ask me to hichhike to come back alone with such a fever!!!


KT’s story (CICD and Holsted, 2009)

‘KT’ is from Estonia. ‘Ok..where do I begin….maybe from the very beginning. First of all, the promotors there, who search people to participate in this Humana program, they DO NOT tell the people all the things you really need to know. So when you go there with blue eyes, believing everything, you will fall hard and fast!’


Linda’s story (Volunteer with ‘Gaia’ and CICD, Newcastle, UK December 2007)

This is my story about my experiences with Humana – I will call it ‘Humana’ for the sake of simplicity. My story is comparatively a short one, still it involves stories of others and gives a good insight into what is going on in UK Humana schools. The good news is that already 16 people left the organization since I started an avalanche of rebellion by leaving myself, in late 2007.


A Brazilian student’s story (CICD college, UK, 2007)
I am Brazilian. I spent one month in Hull, Winestead then came to Newcastle to drive a van colecting door to door clothes for then for one more month then I stop. There is no way to keep on doing this dirth job, I feel like a thief against the UK people, because people gave their clothes expecting that this is going to help someone but it is just for the pockets from that shit people from Humana.


A message from M: (29th November 2007): We are 10 people from England, Italy, Hungary, Brazil, part of September and November team. Between tomorrow and Sunday, finally, we are leaving this “school”. We would like send some news from here and some personal story, and pictures. About pictures of this ugly place we send to you soon.


A message from a German Student, AB: (CICD 2004)
There were One of Humana’s “school” in UK near Hull in Patrington, where I has a chance to be in summer-autumn 2004. Should be interesting some notes about the staff of “school”: three senior ladies from Denmark without any pedagogical (or any) degree, one ex-teacher from difficult teenagers closed school (the “school” now in the same premises) …. It is simply the sect – that is what I can say about that place. The staff recruiting the people from all world, they working for nothing, without weekends, it is not recommending to go to pubs for socialiing with local people, marriages are not allowed in any segment of school (“teachers” can not too teach and “students”-slaves can not live inside if they are married) and “teacher” should left a Humana in case of pregnancy. It is a shit place (in a very beatiful English landscape), simply slave driving in 21 century in Europe. They call it “reducing poverty in Africa”!


A message from Carol (CICD applicant, 2003)
Hi, I enroled the march team 2003 at CICD. After realising the unprofessionality and corruption of Humana, I decided to leave the program by the end of may. I have payed 1000 pounds to CICD and have also fundraised 700 pounds for them. Now I am trying to get some money back of what I have payed, but they are denying my request and are wanting to keep all the money for themselves. Their argument is that I have signed a ‘contract’ which proves that I knew about the school fee. What could I do? do you have any tips? Thanks in advance for your answer.


A message from Kate (CICD, 2002)
Where do I start, at the moment I am a student at CICD I am “fundraising” in Liverpool. I am actually researching their past and present situations and finding more and more evidence that this organisation is corrupt. But, I don’t want to walk away and not change anything. I want to get to the bottom of this and close them down, but how do I do this. Can you give me advise? I am thinking of doing some undercover research over the next week. You can call me on XXXXXXXXX. Hope to hear from you and prevent other people from feeding them more money. Thanks, K


Elaine’s story (CICD, 2002)
I joined the CICD in Winestead, nr Hull on 4 November [2002] thinking it was a legitimate organisation/charity and have since uncovered many distressing and dangerous practices. I have told them I want to leave and they are withholding £1,140 of my money and the same for 3 other colleagues. They refused to talk to us about refunds ……If I had not been convinced before I am most definitely convinced now that money is being siphoned off for some secret project – probably politically motivated.


A Canadian student’s story (CICD and Mozambique , 2002-2003)
I attended CICD in England from Sept. 2002 to March 2003 and volunteered in Mozambique for six months afterwards. I’m not a “Tvind Lover” or a member of TG. I have many stories that I’m sure you’d love to post on the website about how terrible Humana is. But the truth is I can’t bring myself to do that. For every terrible story I have (such as arriving in Mozambique alone and having to find my way to headquarters alone at night), I also have a few explanations as to why this happened.


A message from ‘Sylvie’: (December 2001) ‘I am a volunteer for the September Team 2001 at CICD in Winestead. I have decided not to continue the Program…..I have left CICD now, maybe sooner than planned. In fact all in all 12 people have left within a few weeks (8 from September Team and 4 others). Also there will be 2 more people leaving by the end of next week. As you might imagine there has been a lot happening during my short and very intensive stay at CICD. I and 3 other girls are now living together in Hull, we keep very much in touch with what is happening at CICD and have decided that it is important to do something about the organisation, there are just too many things VERY wrong and I find it incredible that the “school” has been able to operate in such a way for so many years.’


A message from AP: (December 2001) ‘You may like to know that 12 peopel have walked out over the last week at the scool in hull. There are a long list of reasons the scool is inhumaine it should be closed down, why they are allowed to opperate in this or any country is beyond me they are a sick organization that need no more help from decent inocent peopel.’


Adele’s story (CICD,2001)
Had I been told about the fraud charge I wouldn’t have paid a penny, let alone £115.00, and would not have proceeded with the enrolment. What do you think my chances are of getting my money back, just by asking politely? And if I don’t get it back, I want people to know that this organisation is still very much alive and kicking in a small corner of England.


Steve’s story (UK, 2001)

“It was totally apparent from the beginning that this was some form of a con. But what could it be? I could recognize straight away that the teachers were parrot fashioned brain-washed, reading the old script of a sales pitch….Here is my question. With all those people that really want to do some good out there, is it not possible to set up a genuine charity organization here in the UK? If your site is right (and I believe that it is) then they are stealing from the public of this country who want to donate”


Annelie’s story (2000)

Annelie left the College for International Cooperation and Development near Hull, England, after only a few weeks, when she realised she was becoming psychologically pressurised. With others at the college, she found she had not been told all there was to know. She was assisted in her escape by her father and Tvind Alert, and her story was subsequently published in The Times.


Gita’s story (2000)

“Some might say that asking questions is wrong, but not in this case, I was determined to find out who I would be working for, I wanted to know who the Managers or the top guys of Humana were and I wanted to know whether they knew who I was or was I just another statistic – a solidarity worker from New Zealand…..” Gita found out, and left.



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HOT MONEY

Who owns Winestead Hall and CICD?



CICD is owned by an offshore company registered in Jersey, Argyll Smith and Company, a subsidiary of key Teachers Group financial holding company, Fairbank Cooper and Lyle. We believe the Teachers Group has organised its finances so that CICD pays an unusually high rent to Argyll Smith – a legal, convenient and easy way to pass money from the school budget into tax-free offshore accounts.
So instead of paying for improved teaching and charity work, a disproportionate amount of the school’s fees (and volunteers’ fundraising) goes towards rent payments, and is taken abroad. This method of ‘externalising’ cash was identified by British charity officials in their investigation into the school in 1997, when it was Winestead Hall School. The school was closed down as a result. Argyll Smith and Company is mentioned in the 2001 Danish police report.



The offshore rent racket




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HOT MONEY

Student fundraising




As part of the ‘education’ at this college, students have to ‘fundraise’ – that is, beg on the streets. This is in addition to the ‘joining fee’, ‘course fees’ and travel expenses they also have to pay up front.




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HOT MONEY

Old clothes

The college has very close links with Planet Aid Ltd, Green World Recycling, DAPP UK and the ‘Gaia Movement’, which are all parts of the Teachers Group business.   One of CICD’s directors, Birgit Soe, is manager of Planet Aid.    CICD students often have to collect and sort olfd clothes as part of their ‘training’.   Many complain of being made to work long hours collecting used clothes.   DAPP UK students have complained about living in bad conditions in houses in Newcastle or Manchester.

CICD has its own blue ‘charity’ used clothes boxes.   Sometimes these are marked ‘College Aid’.    Although CICD is NOT a registered charity, this is apparently legal.   We do not know where they sell the clothes, but we think they are sold through other Teachers Group companies to their own clothes brokers, using a system to hide profits.   See our file Hot Money: Laundering old clothes in Europe.

Are you one of those students working to collect clothes?        We would be very interested to hear from any students who have worked for any of these used clothes businesses.      We will use this information to complain to the authorities.      Were you being asked to work without a work permit?      Were the pay and conditions reasonable?         Did you have the correct permissions to collect clothes, place clothes banks, or carry out street and house collections?

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Who runs CICD?




Karen Barsoe
Head teacher, and also a director and company secretary. (Danish member of the Teachers Group since c1971)


Birgit Soe
Company director (as of 2007). Her day job is as full time manager of Planet Aid UK


Birgitte Erichsen
Listed as a director in 2007. Her given address is that of a Teachers Group office.


Mikala Gottlob
A former director, but now believed to be running Teachers Group companies in Russia or China.


Helle Lund
A former director, who was previoiusly also associated with Humana UK, closed down for financial irregularities in 1997. Now a manager of Gaia in the USA.



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ACCREDITATION AS A COLLEGE FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS



We are challenging this. If you have any new information to include in the dossier we will take to British authorities, please send it to us at feedback@tvindalert.com.



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PRESS AND MEDIA



School of thought. Cruel Mind Games – Inside the Secret World of a Cult (The Times, 2nd May 2000). By Michael Durham



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Do you have information about a Teachers Group college? Please tell us

Last revised: 6th May 2010