Programmes and news items on the Teachers Group
Tvind and Humana
LATEST
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’.
Extended interview with Mattias Wallander
2nd November 2009
Finnish TV – ‘Eyewitness – Rags to Riches?’
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.
23rd June 2009
Eyewitness investigation: Where are your donations going?
KSTP-TV, Michigan
An investigation into U’SAgain’s clothes business by the Minneapolis-based TV station KSTP-TV. Their reporter discovered that “all collection boxes are not the same”. Watch below or go to the station’s website.
Tri-County News (June 2009): Do you know where your donation is going? A summary of the KSTP-TV investigation.
10th June 2009
Second part of Fox TV investigation into Planet Aid
The follow-up to investigation into Planet Aid by WTTG-TV Fox 5 News in Washington DC: Planet Aid denies cult connection. Watch below or here.
12th May 2009
Fox TV investigates Planet Aid in Washington
Tisha Thomson, investigative reporter for WTTG-TV Fox 5 News in Washington DC, introduces the first of three planned investigative reports on Planet Aid.
“But when we took a close look at it most recent tax records, we noticed many of the charities have the same address. Planet Aid claims it gave more than $2 million to about a dozen charities in South Africa, for instance. But all of those charities have the [same] post office box in Johannesburg.
“We asked the South African embassy to look them up for us. A spokesman for the embassy says none of the groups are registered charities.….” Watch: http://tinyurl.com/fox-planetaid-1
News 4 Investigates: Used by U’SAgain?
(Feb 2007) KMOV-TV, St Louis, Missouri
Tvind, Humana and Planet Aid in the UK and Germany
(19th -20th March, 2009) Danish TV and radio news
In Danish. Arne Skadhede reports on Tvind-Humana-Planet Aid in the UK (March 19th – evening TV) and on Humana in Berlin (March 20th – morning radio) with interviews with journalist Frank Nordhausen from Berliner Zeitung, and with Alexander Schudy, spokesperson for BER, the co-ordinating body for the 70 NGO’s in Berlin which is fighting Humana. On March 20th evening TV news followed up with another item about Humana in Berlin and Germany, mentioning Tvind Alert.
11th Feb 2009
Planet Aid UK: BBC investigation uncovers serious problems – illegal clothes collections and students treated ‘like slaves’
A BBC TV ‘Inside Out’ team investigating Planet Aid in the UK has uncovered serious problems: allegations of illegally collecting clothes without a licence and placing clothes bins on private land without permission.
In a short documentary broadcast on Wednesday, the BBC also heard that students at a Planet Aid so-called ‘school’ in Birmingham were treated ‘like slaves’. Each student was expected to collect more than £7,000 worth of old clothes – but the company gave only 12 per cent of its turnover to ‘good causes’.
The BBC team in the West Midlands area of Britain were investigating Corby-based company Planet Aid UK, the College for International Co-operation and Development near Hull, and the experience of students at the Tvind ‘school’ in Birmingham.
The team sent an undercover reporter in to the Birmingham ‘school’ and easily established a link with the CICD college near Hull and with Tvind in Denmark. The programme went on to draw attention to the fraud conviction of Tvind leader Poul Joergensen last month, the allegation that Tvind is a cult and its many properties abroad.
Mike Durham from Tvind Alert was interviewed for the programme, along with David Rose, a former CICD student, and the team also confronted Birgit Soe, Planet Aid director. The 15-minute item was broadcast on regional television on Wednesday 11th February.
Inside Out – Planet Aid
(June 2003) BBC Regional Television – North East
BBC television follows the trail from Planet Aid clothes boxes in England to Tvind in Denmark. The programme Inside Out interviewed former headmaster Steen Thomson, Danish investigator Frede Farmand, Mike Durham from Tvind Alert, and members of the Teachers Group. The BBC also filmed at Amdi Petersen’s high security ranch in Grindsted and at the courthouse in Aarhus. (No archive available)
Teachers Group was falsifying environmental charity work
(2000) Danish TV 5 documentary
Key documentary that exposed the Humanitarian Fund and led to the Danish police investigation and subsequent prosecutions for fraud.
Last revised 17th November 2009
