Many of Humana People-to-People’s secret luxury properties in Miami are already well known.  Amdi Pedersen, the Humana People-to-People founder, hid for ten years from 1991-2001 with his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen in a luxurious multi-million dollar apartment on Fisher Island – an exclusive millionaire’s playground on the Miami shorefront.

That property, like all the Teachers Group’s luxury Miami portfolio, was bought and covertly paid for by Tvind offshore companies.   We have also long known of four other expensive condominiums in Miami, bought the following year, in a complex called The Sterling.  Since their existence was revealed in 2002, these properties have all been central to fraud proceedings against Pedersen and Tvind in Scandinavia, which are still continuing.

Now we have discovered details of a third group of luxury apartments in Miami, worth more than $1m, bought by the Tvind Teachers Group in 1996 through yet more shell companies.   What is more, the new information reveals clear and unambiguous connections to named individuals still workingto raise money for Humana People-to-People, U’SAgain and other Teachers Group ‘charities’ today.

The FBI investigated the Tvind Teachers Group in Miami in 2001-2, at the request of European police, but failed to find these properties.  They have never followed up.   Have they missed vital evidence which could have been used in the fraud case against Tvind?

The full story of Tvind’s luxury Miami properties is revealing.   The first luxury apartment at 5302 Fisher Island Drive was bought by an offshore company, the Markham Corporation, in December 1991.  Just one year later,  in 1992, a further Tvind shell company, Chilton Intervest Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI),  purchased four units in a posh Miami condominium complex, “The Sterling”, on Collins Avenue, for at least $968,000.    These apartments were immediately occupied by several very senior Teachers Group ‘executives’, all top TG managers responsible for running Teachers Group companies and managing Tvind’s financial affairs – Janice Bostic, Michael Hermann, Christie Pipps (then using the name Kirsten Fuglsbjerg), and a woman known as Lynn Sally Sailsbury.

The newly-discovered Tvind properties are eight luxury Miami apartments bought  in 1996, in a nearby complex called “La Gorce Palace”, also on Collins Avenue.  The initial mortgages for the La Gorce properties ranged from $115K to $400K, for a total of $1.1 million USD.   Florida records show that these expensive apartments were bought by shell companies (Ivy Enterprises and Dorset Estates), both registered in the British Virgin Islands just a few months before the properties were purchased.  Both companies  had top Teachers Group members as their officers: Anne Hansen, “Joop” Nagel, Else Jensen, and Anne Nielsen.

Altogether, the Teachers Group – the secretive body that controls Humana People-to-People and other Tvind ‘humanitarian’ enterprises -  spent more than $5.1 million USD on property and a luxury ocean-going yacht for its top leadership in Miami through shell companies between 1991 and 1996.  Another Fisher Island apartment was purchased in 2000 by yet another shell company, Xoreux Ltd, for $340,000. This apartment was for Amdi Pedersen’s dog.

A few months after the original purchase of the La Gorce properties, six were resold and deeded — two units each — to officers Nielsen, Nagel, and Jensen, and at loans almost double those of the original mortgages, effectively earning these two Tvind BVI companies almost $800K. Buying property through off-shore shell corporations, then quickly re-selling the property to oneself…was this evidence of money laundering on American soil?

According to the FBI file on Tvind, now in the public domain, the FBI office in Miami was “requested to advise Legat [legal attache' in Copenhagen]  if it is aware of TVIND activities in Miami and to provide any open source material it can concerning residences and assets owned by [Tvind] .” In simpler terms, FBI Miami was ordered to identify the people, properties, and businesses associated with Tvind.    Did this happen?

At the time the FBI interviewed several people, including the real estate agents associated with the purchase of the Sterling properties. Bank records were sought. But the properties at La Gorce Palace were apparently undiscovered and were not mentioned in the Danish police report (“Exhibit C”) used in the extradition for fraud of Amdi Petersen.    The shell companies Ivy Enterprises and Dorset Estates were unknown even to Danish investigative journalists who had closely followed the Tvind case.

Public records for all of Tvind’s 14 Miami properties can be found in a database maintained by the Miami-Dade County Registrar…an open-source website that can be accessed by anyone. Copies of mortgages, deed transfers, even a lis pendens (threat to foreclose) filed on Pedersen’s place…it’s all there to review, free of charge. The State of Florida also maintains a website with records of all businesses registered there.

In 2001, when the Danish government first asked the FBI for help with the Tvind case, there were four Tvind businesses registered in Florida: Bostic Inc. (aka Worldwide Suppliers USA Inc), AS Properties LTD, John F. Parsons, and B&B Shipping. Records on these companies show addresses, phone numbers, and the TG members as officers…easy connections with other Tvind operations both in the USA and abroad. According to our sources, both the Miami-Dade County website and the Florida business website were on-line, searchable, and available in 2001.

The FBI file mentions Tvindalert as an open-source website containing background information on Tvind. Several pages of Tvindalert’s website were copied and included in this file, but there is no mention of information from the Florida State businesses website or the Miami-Dade County Registrar’s website. It appears that the FBI Miami did not search those open-source websites, as they were requested to do. This investigation was described as “high profile,” and the need to gather banking information as “urgent,” but did the terrorist attack on 9/11/2001 overshadow this investigation? Perhaps so.

Unfortunately, banks in the USA are allowed to discard records of loans and mortgages that have been closed for seven years. The original loan applications for the purchase of the eight condos at La Gorce Palace, which could have shown the assets for Tvind’s BVI companies Ivy Enterprises and Dorset Estates, would have still been available in 2001, and might have offered a deeper glimpse into Tvind’s financial shell game. By now, those original papers have likely been destroyed. All of Tvind’s Miami properties, all 14 , were sold soon after Amdi Pedersen was arrested in 2002. Even so, the remaining available on-line records  contain information which could prove useful in the Tvind case.

A private USA citizen found the records in 2009, and has since informed the Danish authorities and the FBI. Neither agency has expressed interest in obtaining more information.

* Amdi Petersen, Kirsten Larsen and Christie Pipps are charged with fraud by Danish police, and remain wanted for trial.   They are believed to be living in exile in Mexico and Zimbabwe.

* Janice Bostic is joint CEO of U’SAgain, a ‘philanthropic’ used-clothes collection company owned by the Teachers Group through a Jersey-registered holding company.     Michael Hermann (U’SAgain, Bostic Inc. and Planet Aid Philadelphia) real name Lutz Erlich Michael Hermann, is working to raise money for Humana People-to-People in China, and was recently  running Humana People-to-People clothes collections in Spain.

* Evidence suggests that ‘Lynn Sally Sailsbury’ is a pseudonym or false name for an unknown senior Teachers Group financial executive.

Supporting documents:

FBI file on Tvind 2001, pg 1-3 – excerpt

Deeds for La Gorce Palace, 1997, signed by Anne Hansen, Michael Hermann (Lutz Hermann), Janice Bostic and Christie Pipps (Kirsten Fuglsbjerg)

In the beginning of September, since none of us didn’t get a job and we were behind with the money, we decided to go back to the school and start fundraising by doing the jobs there. Among them you could work in the hotel which is there, where you could get jobs like serving the meals, working in the kitchen, dishwashing, being night-guard, cleaning the rooms or all the other hotel areas. For all the hotel jobs, even if most of them were did after 5 p.m. the payment was 60 NOK per hour.

Another job you could get was to collect used clothes from the UFF containers all over the country. So you had to go with a van, in two or three people, drive all day long and empty the containers. The average day of work consisted of collecting 2 vans of clothes and unloading them into bigger containers, which were attached to trucks to carry them out of Norway. The two vans of clothes meant around 2,4 tons of clothing that we were working with during one day. Sometimes you would finish the work around 12 p.m., and then start again the next day at 8 or 9 a.m. The clothes collection was done in three main areas: 1. Lillehammer, Govik, Hamar, Elverum; 2. Alesund; 3. Trondheim. Since the first area was around the school, we were preparing sandwiches in the morning, going to do the job, the return to the school in the evening or night, depending on how many clothes we were finding in the containers. The payment we would get for the job was 0,65 NOK per kg of clothing. For Alesund or Trondheim, we were leaving the school for 3-4 days and we were living in cottages rented by the school there. We were getting food money 60 NOK per day per person. The payment for Alesund and Trondheim was 0,75 NOK per kg of clothing. In all the areas you were receiving a list with the containers that had to be collected that you had to fulfill.

The payment of these money for which we were working was based on reports that had to be signed by the responsibles of those jobs. In the hotel there were different people who signed for different jobs, while the clothes collection was signed by Kamil, a member of the school’s staff, who was in charge with it. So we weren’t receiving the money in person, everything was based on paper. The only real money that we were getting from the school were 300 NOK, pocket money. Before the team in which me and Tudor were in, nobody ever had these pocket money in the school. To get them we had long discussions with Sissel and Gert Olsen, the school’s headmasters in order to convince them that none of us had any money from our parents, so we needed them in order to buy things like soap, shampoo, tooth paste. We started to receive these pocket money since December, when we finished the pre-course and we were starting the courses. This period of courses meant attending the classes from Monday till Wednesday, and working from Thursday till Sunday. Although we agreed with Gert and Sissel to get the money at the middle of every month, not even once it happened to have them on time. We always had to ask our teacher to speak to them regarding these money and we were always getting them after the 25^th of the month. These 300 NOK pocket money were added to the sum that we had to gain until June, when we were supposed to leave in the project.

Monday morning, 05.03.2012, I left the school as I was going in an investigation with my team in Trondheim. Tudor had previously been kicked out from the team, so he stayed in the school, planning to leave in the same day to Oslo, to live with some friends and look for a job. Before leaving, since a laptop was missing for about 10 days from the school, the staff checked our luggage to see if we have it. In the day when the laptop disappeared, everyone had to stay in the library of the school while they formed some search committees. Every search team consisted of a member of the staff, a member of my team and one from the pre-course. So they went through the rooms, including mine and Tudor’s, but hey didn’t find it. After the search, Sissel said that who took it has the time until the next day in the morning to put it back, otherwise they will call the police. But they didn’t call the police the next day, although the laptop didn’t appear. I must also mention that on Sunday night Tudor was called for a meeting with Gert and Alina, the owner of the laptop and, as far as he told me, Alina told him that on Monday she will to go the police (after 10 days) to report the theft and she will say that him and me are the main suspects, as we don’t like her. I don’t know too many details  from that discussion, as it seemed incredible for me that we are the main suspects, since we had a brand new laptop since January, so we didn’t need it, anyway. They also told him that he should think about me and about the fact that I want to remain in the school and being a suspect is not so easy. So, coming back to Monday morning, after the Alina and other member of the staff checked our luggage, we were prepared to go, but I realised that I have Tudor’s wallet in my purse, so I ran to the room to leave it there. He was sleeping, as I left him before. When going to the car, the member of the staff which was with Alina checking our luggage saw me and he was looking funny at me, so I told him that the laptop doesn’t fit in my purse and I don’t have it. He let me go, so I left to Trondheim. It was only on Tuesday night when I found out what impact this had, when another guy from the staff told me: that guy thought in that morning that I went to the room to warn Tudor that they are checking the luggage before we go down. And this explains the staff’s following actions: they were guarding the door of our room all day long, just to be sure that they will check Tudor’s luggage before he leaves the school. And they were also following him in the school because they were probably thinking they will see him going to the place where the laptop was hidden. And all day they were asking him when is he leaving. That’s all I know from that day. During the night, I received a phone call from a teammate which was in the school and I was informed about Gert’s death. Also, the school had requested for me to come back, so few of us drove during Monday night and we reached the school on Tuesday, around 7 a.m. There, I asked the police if I can enter my room, they told me that they finished the search and that I should go to the police station in Lillehammer to be interviewed. Later on Tuesday, I went to the police station, where the police man asked me few questions about what happened. On Wednesday, I agreed with my teammates to go to Alesund to do clothes collection, so I called the police to ask if I can leave the school for few days. They agreed. In the same day, a Danish person who was called the formal headmaster asked me if I would like to speak to the emergency team which came in the school to talk to the people, I explained him that I feel more comfortable to talk with my friends about this and that I am fine. Also, he told me that he knows that I would like to leave the program, so I should let him know when I want to leave or if I need something else. I told him that I would like to take time until the end of the week so I can ship my belongings to Romania. He told me to take as much time as I need. My parents also knew that I was going to stay a little more there to pack all my things and ship them. On Tuesday and Wednesday, few of my teammates weren’t speaking to me anymore, like other people in the school and one of them was accusing me that I will harm people and I should stay away from them. I went in the kitchen, where a friend was working, when the guy who saw me getting out of the room Monday morning (his name is Csaba) came to me and told me that they want to go again in the room and look for the laptop. I told him that the room is a mess, police already looked for it, but he said that the police didn’t look for the laptop, but for weapons. So I went in the room with the staff, we took out from the cupboard Tudor’s things, then they started to search in the room. They kept telling me that I don’t have to be there to see that, but I just had to be there. Then one guy proposed to move the cupboard and check it in the behind. They did it, then they became suspicious about the floor under the cupboard. They removed the wooden floor, they found underneath a wooden board which was 2-3 cm thick, they broke a part of it just to find a big hole filled with isolation. They put everything back and they left. After this, I was speaking to the guy who was going to clothes collection in Alesund the next day and we were thinking that I should go with him for few days there to work, get out of that place and clear my mind. He spoke to my teacher, and she said that it’s a good idea and she will speak to the clothes collection responsible. So on Thursday morning I was expecting to leave to Alesund with this guy and one of my teammates. I know that at 9 a.m. my team had a meeting in which they were discussing also about the way that they are treating me, because, as I told you, some weren’t speaking with me and there was a guy accusing me that I will cut Alina. So, around half past 10 I was called by my teacher who told me that after the meeting the Danish people who came to the school and were in charge of the entire situation decided that I should leave the school that day. I started to cry, because the day before they told me I can take my time to pack and everything. My teacher told me that she can try to convince them to buy me a hotel room for few days, but what was I supposed to do after? So when she asked me where do I want to have the ticket, I told her that I am going home, because I had no other option. She told me it’s best to go and start packing. I went in the room, then after one hour she came and told me that in one hour I should go down to catch the train. I started to cry again, as it was impossible to pack everything in one hour. When taking me down, besides the driver there also was a member of the staff which my teacher told me he is going down to Lillehammer. While being in a car, I started to talk to him and he told me they sent him with me till the airport for support, but that he realised in that very moment that he was a guardian dog to escort me. I agreed with him that the way they kicked me out is going to reach the embassy, and I have his support as a witness. I didn’t know anything about the plane ticket, I received the registration number while I was in the train, and all the other information related to my departure and arrival I only got them when I took my boarding pass. The guy who came with me didn’t know anything about my plane, also, so I didn’t even know what to tell my parents about my arrival.

Beyond the dramatic aspect there is a sad reality which made this incident possible. It is clear that this could have been avoided if all the complaints made against DRH over the years were taken seriously. In the UK for example, the authorities acted several times against the schools associated with Humana People to People organization. In France this organization was declared a sect. Still, in Norway, this group was more than profitable. Under  the name of UFF (U-landshjelp fra Folk til Folk), Humana Movement found the recipe for a new form of slavery. DRH is in a partnership with UFF, however both groups are connected with Humana People to People and its headquarters in Tvind, Denmark. The new headmaster of the school was sent from there. After all, the business has to go on, no matter how many people die in the process.

Free labor force from Eastern Europe, sometimes from Latvia or Portugal, is what kept this school running all these years. There was a suicide in the 90’s and a deadly car crash in 2010, not to mention the long series of different accidents. All those countless complaints against the school were ignored and now one of the leaders is dead. This raises many questions regarding what was really going on there.

Why this happened and how come a young man with humanitarian aspirations could stab one of his supervisors? Why after 7 months of living there he decided to act in such a way? Why the Norwegian authorities never took a closer look at DRH? If the authorities will finally decide to make a real investigation regarding the motifs they will discover lots of illegalities. Moreover they will understand that the students were used only for economic purposes and the “didactic” or “humanitarian” principles are  nothing else but a façade. Many ex volunteers say that the ingredients for such a dreadful event were there for a long time: mistreated students, careless management and insensitive authorities plus an isolated community where control and surveillance were active policies.

To be continued

A Tvind teacher, believed to be the headmaster Gert Olsen, has been stabbed to death at the Tvind school DRH Hornsjoe in Norway.  News so far released by Norwegian police is that a male teacher aged 54 was stabbed and killed at the school near Lillehammer last night.    A female teacher, aged 52, was also attacked but survived – believed to be the joint head teacher, Olsen’s wife Sissel Beate Skjennem.   Police have arrested a student, of Romanian nationality.  The student suspect has been informally named as Tudor.

*Note:  This is a SEPARATE INCIDENT and completely unconnected to the serious eye injury sustained  at Hornsjoe recently by a different Romanian student, Chitu Cosmin – see the posting below.   Mr Cosmin has NO connection to yesterday’s killing.   Reports in the Romanian media linking him to the events yesterday are completely incorrect – he is not the killer.*

Norwegian media was this afternoon reporting that the 24 year old student entered the headmasters’ private apartment last night, armed with a knife, and ‘took the female teacher hostage’.    She suffered cuts to the fingers.   The male teacher intervened and challenged the student, and was stabbed in the back.   He died on the way to hospital.

Sources confirm to Tvind Alert that the dead teacher was Gert Olsen.

Journalists and broadcasters are anxious to interview any current students at Hornsjoe, or past students with relevant information.  Anyone with information can contact the media through us at feedback@tvindalert.com.  (Note: we have already been contacted by another ex-student, who is willing to give interviews.)

More news as we get it.

Norwegian media links:

Vart Land:  http://www.vl.no/samfunn/drh-ansatt-dod-etter-knivstikking/

VG: http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10061363

Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen: http://www.gd.no/nyheter/article5958411.ece

Aftenpost:   http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/Student-i-20-arene-pagrepet-etter-drap-pa-hoyfjellshotell-6777828.html#.T1YGxvVsX4g

Romanian media:

Realitatea.net:     http://www.realitatea.net/un-roman-l-a-injunghiat-de-15-ori-pe-directorul-unei-scoli-de-voluntariat-din-norvegia_920251.html

Gandul:     http://www.gandul.info/international/un-roman-ar-fi-omorat-un-director-de-scoala-din-norvegia-si-ar-fi-ranit-o-pe-sotia-acestuia-9374762

Tvind Alert on Facebook

See also postings on Tvindalert page on Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/tvindalert

This is a non-profit website run by volunteers.   Please help to cover our costs.      Sponsor Tvind Alert through Paypal here:   donations@tvindalert.com

In an account sent to this website, Mr Chitu says a a 1.7cm piece of metal from a rotary device pierced his eye while he was cleaning used-clothing containers. After treatment, Chitu has been told he has permanent damage to the eye and has undergone four operations.   Chitu alleges he was given no training to use the machinery, told to use the wrong device to clean the contaners and advised to remove safety goggles, at the time of the accident in June 2011.

After the extent of his injuries became apparent, he was taken for surgery to hospitals in Trondheim and Oslo.   While in hospital in Trondheim, Chitu says, he was not contacted by the school or by anyone at Humana People-to-People. “The school’s headmasters didn’t even call to the hospital to check my status. I sent an email to my teacher with a very detailed description of my situation and I also asked her why the school is not showing any signs. This is a quote from her reply: “I am sorry that we did not march collectively into the hospital to pay you a visit. Don’t be unfair!”.

It has since emerged that the school did not have proper health insurance, Chitu claims, and the school will not offer compansation or meet any medical expenses. The school did not report the accident to police or to the Norwegian Labour Protection Institute (Arbeidstilsynet), as Norwegian law requires.  Chitu writes:  “How is it possible that a humanitarian organization which has the only purpose to help the others can break the laws so easily? How can they disregard human beings without the slightest remorse? How could they not implement safety measures after all the tragedies that occurred in that place?   “I felt very alone during my three weeks in hospital. I felt abandoned by the people with whom I was eating, the people for whom I was working, the people that I trusted and I needed so much.”

Chitu is considering contacting lawyers, but says he is currently receiving little help from Norwegian police or offical authorities to address the situation.   In 2010, a DRH Norway volunteer died and another was seriously injured while collecting clothes for DRH Norway in a serious road accident near Trondheim.   This is Cosmin Chitu’s account, which he has called ‘A Modern Fairy Tale from Norway’.  I have asked for a response from DRH Norway.

My story, by Cosmin Chitu

If you are a former student at CICD and would like to contribute evidence to this dossier, please get in touch with Tvind Alert.

So what is Garson & Shaw up to now, opening offices and apparently ferrying old clothes and shoes around the world between the USA, Canada, Belize, the Bahamas and Nicaragua?

http://tumfweko.com/2012/01/19/mugabe-orders-door-to-door-hiv-testing-for-zimbabweans/comment-page-1/#comment-71200

And look at this comment posted on the article (and not by us):

Former volunteer of TCE NGO

January 20, 2012 at 5:38 pm

Unbelievable (but totally predictable) that an ‘NGO’ (that is completely 110% FOR profit) as corrupt as Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE) and Mugabe are so intertwined in the Empire they’re creating.

I worked in these countries doing VCT for TCE and most if not all these volunteers (who you’re right will not ever be properly remunerated) are not properly trained to give an HIV+ diagnosis.

If anything, this is a cautionary tale to Zimbabwean residents to beware of the capabilities that could unfold in a country with those 2 entities/empires in power.

We’d like Former volunteer of TCE NGO to get in touch please!