TVIND ALERT

28th December 2009

US Government to investigate $ millions paid to Planet Aid

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to investigate what has happened to more than millions of dollars in grants to Tvind / Humana over the last five years. The move follows concern expressed by Tvind Alert. As already reported here, the US government agency is one of the biggest funders of the Teachers Group, handing over money and produce for ‘projects in Africa’.

Tvind Alert warned the USDA more than a year ago that it was making huge grants to an organisation associated with financial crime, whose leaders were wanted for fraud by Danish police. The USDA initially declined to act.

Danish newspaper Morganevisen Jyllands-Posten reports today that Tvind-Humana receives more funding from the USDA than any other organisation, amounting to more than half a billion Danish Krone ($96 million) since 2004.

Much of the USDA support has been in the form of wheat and soya donated to Planet Aid under USDA’s ‘Food for progress’ scheme. But it is not known what measures are in place to ensure the ‘food aid’ is properly administered once it arrives in Africa, and is not simply sold for profit.

Jyllands-Posten today quoted a senior USDA official, Judith A. Phillips, saying the USDA would in 2010 make a ‘serious investigation’ of Tvind and the USDA grants.

Jyllands-Posten story (in Danish)

USDA gives $33 million to Planet Aid, Dec 2008

Hall of shame: how government agencies, charities and big business are giving Tvind millions

27th December 2009

A joint operation by Danish, Mexican and British police has led to the apprehension of Tvind ‘chief accountant’ Marlene Gunst at Heathrow Airport. Gunst is one of five fugitive Teachers Group bosses who fled abroad in 2006, thwarting Danish judiciary plans for a High Court trial. The arrest means the authorities have now served legal papers on her, obliging her to attend court in Denmark.

According to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Gunst was apprehended by UK police, acting on a request from Danish police, while changing planes ‘recently’ at Heathrow Airport. The Danes had received a tip-off from Mexican police. After she was served with the papers Gunst was allowed to continue her journey. If she fails to attend court, Danish police will now legally be able to issue an international arrest warrant through Interpol.

The move is a breakthrough because it demonstrates that police forces are working co-operatively to find and bring to justice the missing Teachers Group leaders. According to Jyllands-Posten, the move has stiffened the resolve of Danish police to find and serve papers on the other four fugitive Teachers Group leaders who are believed to be hiding in the organisation’s $10m compound near Ensanada, Mexico.

Police catch Tvind ‘chief accountant’ Gunst in London (Report in Danish)

Who is Marlene Gunst?

A summary of what we know about Jersey-registered Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle, the landholdings it owns, and police allegations of hot money transfers.

A Danish supreme court verdict affirms that the Tvind schools are not independent bodies, but part of a ‘corporation’ run by the Teachers Group leaders, including ‘KLAP’, Kirsten Larsen and Amdi Petersen.

US TV investigates U’SAgain

An investigation by Kiro 7 TV, Seattle, into used clothes collector U’SAgain concludes the public is being deceived because the company is falsely masquerading as a charity.

The Teachers Group enterprise has recently installed 600 clothing donation boxes in the Seattle area. Investigative reporter Chris Halsne tells viewers: “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 Group’s leaders members prosecuted for fraud in Denmark, now fugitive. But Kiro TV says financial records ‘indicate otherwise’. Tvind Alert provided interviews, information and documentation for this report, but received no acknowledgement.

Kiro 7 Eyewitness News report

Story on KiroTV.com

Extended interview with Mattias Wallander

Mayor calls for removal of for-profit donation bins (25th November 2009)

A former employee has turned whistleblower and revealed exactly how the Teachers Group used offshore accounts, front companies, false invoices and fake letterheads to cream off the profits from Humana / UFF used clothes donations in Europe, 1990-2000. And today?

A little bit of research and a restored page tells the story of four Teachers Group companies in Gibraltar, used to wash millions of pounds from used clothes donations into offshore accounts. Coming soon – more details from a ‘whistleblower’.

This restored page tells of a luxury beachside villa, landholdings, and Teachers Group money washing through the world’s most notorious offshore tax haven.

Our newly rewritten biography of the fugitive Teachers Group founder and leader, Amdi Petersen, now restored to the site.

If you can add to our biography, please contact us.

Silminnäkijä: Ryysyillä rikkauksiin?

Exclusive – a 30-minute report by Finnish TV’s channel 2, about UFF in Finland, exposes the links between UFF, the Teachers Group and the senior TG leader Poul Jörgensen, currently serving a jail sentence in Denmark for fraud.

UFF is the sister organisation to Humana, founded in Finland in 1989, and dominates the collection of used clothes and the second hand clothing market in Finland. However UFF Finland is shrouded in secrecy.

”Eyewitness” decided to visit Denmark to gather information about the background of UFF. The programme describes how the Tvind empire saw daylight in Denmark and how idealism turned into greed and led to systematic economic crimes. The programme goes on to reveal that UFF is a tiny link in a vast net of organisations led by the so-called Teachers Group, and also reveals that Poul Jörgensen, the founder of UFF Finland, was sentenced to a 2,5 year jail-sentence for economic crimes in January 2009.

Frede Jakobsen, Danish editor of www.tvindalert.com, was interviewed for the programme.

For more information on the programme and how to watch it until December 3rd see our Finland page or visit http://areena.yle.fi. The TV website and programme are in Finnish.