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Mexico: Amdi Petersen photographed in Mexico
February 2008EXCLUSIVE - WE FIND FUGITIVE CULT LEADER AMDI PETERSEN IN MEXICO
Exclusive to tvindalert.com by Frede Jakobsen and Michael Durham
Pictures © copyright www.tvindalert.com. All rights reserved.
Danish police and the Danish Public Prosecutor can't find him. He constantly evades an international arrest warrant. But here he is (above) - photographed a few weeks ago in a remote area of Mexico. This is the moment a photographer captured the fugitive Teachers Group leader, Mogens Amdi Petersen, looking over his new $10 million 'retirement mansion', at San Juan de las Pulgas in the Baja California region.
Petersen (pictured left in Denmark, August 2006) is the inspiration and leader of Humana People-to-People and the Tvind movement - and undisputed leader of the Teachers Group. And he is on the run - for the second time in his long 'career' as a cult leader and bogus 'philanthropist'. This time he went underground in September 2006 - covertly leaving Denmark to avoid a re-trial on charges of tax fraud for millions of dollars. The picture on the left is one of the last taken of him in Denmark before he fled, outside the courtroom.
With other fugitives from the law, Petersen was initially believed to be hiding at the Humana People-to-People HQ at Shamwa, Zimbabwe, protected by his old friend, the Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe.
But on this particular day he was in San Juan de las Pulgas looking over the new temple-like beachside property complex, TG Pacifico, which comes complete with cathedral-like assembly area, exhibition space, gymnasium, squash courts, swimming pool and helipad, which has just been completed on a 740-hectare estate south of Ensanada.
According to reliable sources who have contacted Tvind Alert, Petersen and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen (number two in the TG hierarchy) fly regularly between Johannesburg in South Africa and Mexico.
However there is reason to believe that Petersen may be living permanently at the complex in Mexico. Petersen has now evaded the law for a year and a half. But that is nothing to him - last time around, he was missing for 22 years, until police arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport on 17th February 2002 and charged him with fraud.
In our photo (top), taken in November 2007, the all-powerful Teachers Group leader cuts a humble figure, standing outside the group on the far right listening while the Teachers Group manager at Las Pulgas, Birgitte Krohn (yellow trousers), explains the building to some important visitors. Petersen looks old and tired - he was 68 years old when this photograph was taken, and reached 69 on January 9th - and is stooped with age. His white hair appears to have been dyed a dark colour.
He must be looking forward to retirement in his new luxury retreat.
Slideshow: more pictures of San Juan de las Pulgas
Read our dossier on TG Pacifico in Mexico
DAPP UK started
November 2007'Humana' registers a new 'charity' in Britain
BUT THE UK CHARITY COMMISSION FAILS TO ACT
Ten years after 'Humana UK' was placed in receivership and removed from Teachers Group control in Britain because of alleged fraud and serious financial impropriety, the disgraced Humana has opened a new charity in Britain.
The new clothes charity is called DAPP UK and was registered with the UK Charity Commission in March 2007, apparently approved without officials becoming aware of the connection.
Used-clothes collection boxes previously run by Planet Aid UK are being rebranded with the new name to take advantage of charity law.
The new DAPP UK is run by several graduates of the Tvind system who are members of the Teachers Group, on similar lines to all other Humana-style clothes enterprises. They include Trond Narvestad, a Teachers Group member and chairman of the Swedish branch of the clothes enterprise when it was investigated by the Swedish press and charity officials there over allegations of fraud.
The new UK charity registration seems designed to outwit British supermarket chains, including Asda, which last year banned Planet Aid UK from their land. Planet Aid UK was launched by the Teachers Group back in 1998 as a replacement for the disgraced Humana UK charity which was placed in receivership around the same time.
The UK Charity Commission, which acted effectively to remove charitable status from Humana UK in 1996-7, has been informed of the situation, but has so far failed to take any serious interest in the affair.
Denmark: new trial
September 2006Danish Attorney General appeals and orders a new trial
The official Danish Public Prosecutor will challenge the shock 'not guilty' verdicts handed down by a judge on Amdi Petersen and other Teachers Group leaders on 31st August 2006. Six of the eight originally accused but cleared by a District Court will be the subject of an appeal - Mogens Amdi Petersen, Kirsten Larsen, Marlene Gunst, Sten Byrner, Poul Jørgensen and Christie Pipps (also known as Kirsten Fuglsbjerg).
Verdicts against two TG members, Bodil Ross Sørensen and Ruth Sejerø-Olsen, will not be appealed. The case will now move to a higher court (Landsretten). It is believed the appeal will concentrate on Teachers Group and Humanitarian Fund financial affairs in Malaysia and Brazil, where the Teachers Group owns the enormous Floryl plantation.
Britain: Major supermarket acts against 'Planet Aid'
4th September 2006Asda bans 'Planet Aid' from its car parks
The Times reports that giant supermarket chain Asda has evicted Planet Aid bins from its store car parks. Full report
Friends Forever
May 2006HUMANA'S NEW MONEY-SPINNER: SELLING AFRICA'S ART
Exclusive to Humana Alert
The Tvind Teachers Group, which runs Humana, is rapidly expanding a new money-making enterprise: selling art by African sculptors at high prices to collectors in Europe, the United States and even Russia. Friends Forever', based in eastern Zimbabwe near Humana's African headquarters,
may at first sight seem like a humanitarian cause, but on close inspection looks highly commercial. Specially-commissioned art by Zimbabwean sculptors is being put up for sale by Tvind at prices up to 10,000 euros each.
Exhibitions of the art have already been staged in the USA, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands, with shows currently under way in Italy and the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow. The sculptures are also for sale on the organisation's website.
The new organisation makes much of its association with Humana, but in fact there is no mention of any humanitarian purpose, nor is it clear how much of the profits will be passed on to the African artists.
The evidence, instead, points to 'Friends Forever' being yet another Tvind money-spinning business. It's curator, Sune Jørgensen, is a long-standing member of the Tvind Teachers Group, and president for many years of Tvind's Arts Association of March 85. Sculpture sales have been put on by Humana Italy and Humana Spain, and in the USA, a recent Friends Forever exhibition was mounted in co-operation with Garson and Shaw, the Tvind-run used-clothes trading enterprise.
Eight members of the Tvind Teachers Group are currently on trial in Denmark accused of £10 million tax fraud and embezzlement in connection with allegedly non-existent charities in Britain, France, Malaysia and other countries.
FRIENDS FOREVER: THE TG CONNECTION
Who really runs 'Friends Forever'? The organisation's website, www.friendsforeverzimbabwe.com was registered last year by someone using the email friis@e-advice.dk. E-Advice is another Tvind company, which collects and sells old computers.
It gets better. We know the 'friis' is almost certainly Jesper Friis, a Tvind teacher who is the registered contact for several other Tvind websites including UFF in Norway and Humana in Spain. He is associated with Juelsminde, Tvind's former school in Denmark, and also uses the email friis@humana.org.
'Friends Forever is not just connected to Tvind - it is Tvind!
Ecuador: Tvind "steals from poor banana workers"
Monday 13th December 2004 23.35 GMT
"Look at this old man. He is 80 years old. His name is Terán Leon Hector Simon. He is a poor man, and always has been. But as a banana plantation worker he can make a living. He gets 32 dollars and 68 cents every week. He has worked hard all his life. Now at 80 years old he would like to retire. But he can't. Then he would not have any income. His employer has kept the money. It should have been transferred to the social- and health-insurance, instead the money has been withheld.
"His employer is the Teachers Group-Tvind owned banana plantation La Italia in Ecuador........"
The Teachers Group allegedly breaks agreements negotiated with Ecuadorean trade unions over conditions for banana workers at its remaining plantation in Ecuador, La Italia, following the arrival of a new Teachers Group manager, Bjarne Hjorth. As reported in the Danish press.
Full story and pictures
Christmas on the Barrier Reef for Amdi Petersen?
Thursday, 9th November 2004"The Butterfly McQueen, the Teachers Group's 40-metre superyacht, has been spotted moored at Gold Coast, Australia's surfing playground in Queensland, as reported by the Gold Coast Bulletin (below). With great surfing and terrific beaches, and the Great Barrier Reef not far away, it's the ideal spot for a winter break for a reclusive millionaire. The newspaper was unable to establish if the vessel has new owners yet; if it is still in Teachers Group possession, could it be Christmas in the sun for Amdi Petersen?
Cult Link to Yacht. Mystery of the beautiful Bermuda-rigged schooner
A crewman on Butterfly McQueen in Gold Coast marina. Click to enlarge. Credit: Gold Coast Bulletin
Case against Amdi Petersen could last until 2006
Wednesday 17th November 2004The case against Tvind founder Mogens Amdi Petersen and seven of his closest co-workers is now estimated to be not completed before May 2006, writes Berlingske Tidende. Prosecutor Poul Gade and defender Anders Boelskifte are accusing each other of being guilty for the delay. Judge Steen Løvbjerg Nielsen is tired to run the case which will be enormously expensive for the Danish state. Experts estimate that not much punishment will be left over for the main defendant.
http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=503486/
In September, the national Danish newsagency, Ritzau, estimated that the total public costs for the case against Tvind will be 35 million Danish Kroner - the case is about fraud for 50 million Danish Kroner. The estimated 35 million Danish Kroner will be only for the first round of legal proceedings - for the case running in the so called City Court. When the case is finished the sentence - whatever it will be - will probably be appealed to a higher court (not the High Court - it's the third and last court) either by Tvind or by the Public Prosecutor.
Amdi Petersen and the seven other TG-leaders have 12 lawyers, who each take their part of the public spending on the case. Each of them will be paid more than one million Danish Kroner - according to Ritzau. So it means that by autumn 2005, the public will have paid 35 million Danish Kroner - after Tvind for years and years have refused to pay the taxes to the public. Unless, of course, the court decides, that Tvind will have to pay the costs in the case.
In September, the number of court sessions in Arhus had passed 60.
DRH Juelsminde college is to close
29th September 2004The Travelling Folk High School at Juelsminde has been sold. The college - one of Tvind's oldest - will be pulled down and replaced by a development of up to 100 beachside apartments.
Danish newspapers report that the college in a beautiful location next to the sea, has been bought by two Danes living in Germany who have submitted plans for the redevelopment.
The Juelsminde school is one of the oldest Tvind colleges and a jewel in the crown of the Tvind empire. It has been a college for more than 25 years. Amdi Petersen's aged mother still lives in an apartment on the site.
Tvind spokesman Poul Joergensen confirms the sale but says: 'We don't have so many pupils any more'. Tvind will keep the neighbouring inspector's house.
No official figure has been given for the sale, but the value of the buildings is estimated at 22 million DKK (about £2 million). There has been speculation about how exactly the Tvind Teachers Group will benefit from the deal: the official owner of the site is Tvind's property-owning Foundation Faelleseje, but that trust was taken over by the Danish government.
One correspondent writes: "Most interesting is it, that Juelsminde - as all the other Tvind-buildings - is owned by the Foundation Fælleseje. But the state took control over Fælleseje last year because of irregularities. So it means that the TG can't just use the money, that belongs to Fælleseje, since Poul Jørgensen has lost his position as chairman to a man put in by the state. Poul J. is now only vice-chairman.
" I wonder, maybe TG has sold Juelsminde for a low price, and has put that money where it belongs - in Fælleseje. And then maybe have got another amount of money "under the table" - paid to some offshore TG-account."
Tvind school to be pulled down and replaced by luxury apartments
UN World Food Programme ceases co-operation with DAPP in Africa.
Wednesday 22nd September 2004The United Nations World Food Programme has stopped working with DAPP / ADPP in Africa. DAPP (Development Aid from People to People) is Tvind's main 'aid organisation' in Africa, running projects supposedly supported by clothes sales and donations in Europe. While projects undoubtedly exist, there have been allegations in the past that money from Europe may have been diverted or siphoned off and does not always reach the projects. In 1999, when Humana UK was closed down, British Charity Commission officials concluded that DAPP projects in Zambia were double-funded - in other words they were paid for twice over, leaving a large undeclared surplus.
The Rome-based World Food Programme said it had ceased cooperation over food distribution with DAPP / ADPP after a review, but did not say why. No money grants were involved. In a statement it said: "WFP has in the past been co-operating with ADPP/DAPP in a limited number of African countries. The co-operation has not implicated transfer of funds from WFP to the mentioned organisations, but agreements on the distribution of food to certain beneficiaries. WFP regularly employs NGO partners to distribute its food aid.
"WFP is well aware of the connection between ADPP/DAPP and Humana and a number of other related organisations, nationals as well as internationals. Earlier this year, WFP made a decision to cease cooperation with ADPP/DAPP/Humana following a regular review of our NGO partnerships. WFP is not aware of decisions made within other UN agencies or programmes regarding this matter."In Portuguese-speaking Angola and Mozambique, DAPP is known as ADPP (Ajuda de Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo).
The Butterfly McQueen 'has been sold'
Tuesday 14th September 2004(Unconfirmed) According to a Tvind Alert contact, the Teachers Group luxury yacht Butterfly McQueen has been sold.
The $7.3m yacht, built to the highest specifications, was bought by Tvind in the 1990s. It was once the world's biggest glass fibre luxury yacht, with accommodation for 12 in cabins fitted with cherry wood and Italian marble, a stateroom with a four poster bed, leather sofas and an ebony framed dining table. While in the possession of Amdi Petersen and the Teachers Group, she sailed 25,000 miles around some of the world's most desirable coastlines.
Since 2002 - with the Danish police hot on Petersen's tail - the Butterfly McQueen has been moored in Auckland and put up for sale, reportedly at a bargain $3.3 million. According to informants, one reason for the low price was that, ever mindful of cost, the Teachers Group had carried out their own running repairs to the yacht and its trim, reducing its value. Effectively, the TG had not looked after its asset.
No selling price for the yacht is available yet.
Robert Mugabe "confiscates Tvind property
6th September 2004Amdi Petersen, Teachers Group leader and Tvind guru, has lost one of his last powerful friends - Robert Mugabe, The Zimbabwean dictator is today reported to have ordered the confiscation of a Tvind property in Shamva, Zimbabwe - the first time Tvind has been subject to Mugabe's policy of forced land redistribution of white-owned farms.
It is not clear if the property is Humana People-to-People's £900,000 showcase international headquarters, designed by Danish architect Jan Utzon, or a nearby farm, reports Danish newspaper Politiken. The Humana-UFF property in Shamva was listed on Friday in the Zimbabwe Herald newspaper as among properties scheduled to be confiscated and handed ove to black farmers. Tvind spokesman, Poul Jørgensen could not provide any further clarification.
Mugabe and Petersen have been close comrades for years, ever since Petersen supported Mugabe's ZANU-PF freedom fighters in the liberation war in the 1970s. Tvind and the Teachers Group own several farms, forest plantations and properties in Zimbabwe, which they claim to run as charitable development projects, and also a number of schools and colleges. Mugabe himself attended the opening of the £900,000 Humana HQ in 1998 and when Petersen was arrested in the US in 2001, lawyers proposed calling Mugabe as a witness to testify that Petersen really is a selfless apostle of third world aid and not a crook engaged in lining his own pockets.
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