HENNING BJORNLUND
Many of these plantations were bought as commercial business investments in the 1980s on the advice of a Teachers Group member who was then the organisation’s ‘chief accountant’ Henning Bjornlund. Bjornlund has since retired from Tvind and is working as a university professor in Australia and Canada.
In an unguarded moment, Bjornlund once told an undercover reporter that the investments were nothing to do with foreign aid but ‘all about money’. Many people believe the Teachers Group used profits from its charitable and humanitarian enterprises to make these investments, an idea supported by the Danish police report of 2001.
Archive for the ‘Who’ Category
Henning Bjornlund
On March - 1 - 2010
Who they are
On November - 29 - 2009
The TOP 30
Do you have additional information or a photograph
of any of these people? Please tell us.
FIVE WANTED BY POLICE
All five left Denmark in late 2006. The Danish government has asked police forces abroad for help to locate them, and it is likely they would be charged with fraud if they returned to Denmark
Mogens Amdi Petersen
Born 1939. Founder of Tvind and of the Teachers Group in 1969-70 and unchallenged leader since.
Built up the Tvind school movement in Denmark in the 1970s, but went ‘underground’ in 1979 and his whereabouts were unknown for 22 years. In 2001 he was found to be living in a $7m luxury apartment in Miami and he was arrested, charged with fraud and extradited to Denmark. In late 2006, after a three year trial in which he was found not guilty, he fled Denmark to avoid a retrial and is now a fugitive, believed to be living in Mexico.
Kirsten Larsen
Joint leader of the Tvind Teachers Group with Amdi Petersen. Often described as ‘Amdi’s chief girlfriend’ and also his regular driver.
Documented as chairman or manager of several key Jersey-registered offshore companies, and owner of a Cayman-registered farming company. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle. One of eight ‘Teachers’ charged with fraud in 2002, now a fugitive abroad and believed to be living in Mexico.
Further information on Kirsten Larsen available on request
Marlene Gunst
Board member of many Teachers Group companies and private trusts for many years. She is a director of several wealthy Teachers Group companies we have recently located in the USA.
According to Danish police, Gunst played a key part in arranging money transfers for the 1994 purchase of the $9 million Fazenda Jatoba ranch in Brazil. Following Danish police inquiries, she left Denmark for Britain in 2001, using a Kensington mailbox address.
Charged with fraud in 2002, acquitted in 2006, but now a fugitive abroad and believed to be living in Mexico. She has now been intercepted by police at Heathrow Airport and served with legal papers obliging her to attend trial in Denmark.
Further information on Marlene Gunst available on request
Kirsten Fuglsbjerg (Christie Pipps)
A trained lawyer, connected to many Teachers Group enterprises, key offshore companies and trusts, including recently in the USA. According to Danish police, signed for the Teachers Group’s $9m purchase of Fazenda Jatoba, Brazil in 1994. Has used the name Christie Pipps since 1992.
She has been accused of fraud in two separate cases. A charge of money laundering by Belgian police in 2002 was withdrawn. Also charged with fraud in Denmark, but acquitted in 2006. Now a fugitive abroad, whereabouts unknown.
Further information on Kirsten Fuglsbjerg available on request
Sten Byrner
According to Danish police, ‘centrally placed’ in Tvind and a key member of the ‘Teachers Group Economy’, the central financial directorate, 1987-92. In 2002 police charged him in relation to funds and trusts he helped manage ten years earlier.
Byrner admitted several minor frauds in the 2002-2006 Teachers Group fraud trial, and received a suspended sentence. He is currently a fugitive outside Denmark, whereabouts unknown, and faces further charges if he returns.
Further information on Sten Byrner available on request
IN JAIL
Convicted of fraud, January 2009. The only one of six defendants
caught by Danish police in late 2006 – the rest fled abroad
Poul Jørgensen
Convicted of fraud in Denmark in January 2009 in connection with Teachers Group finances. He was found guilty of embezzlement of 15 million DKK, and tax fraud of 53 million DKK.
Described as ‘Tvind spokesman’ and in day-to-day control of Teachers Group affairs since 1979. Jørgensen is a trained lawyer. He was until 2001 chairman of two key financial trusts – the Humanitarian Fund and the Faelleseje Foundation.
Jørgensen is the only one of six Tvind leaders served with legal papers in late 2006 – five others evaded police and fled abroad to escape prosecution.
Further information on Poul Jørgensen available on request
FIVE IN THE USA
The most prominent names in our research in the USA
Mikael Norling
A key Tvind organiser. Current chairman of CCTG, and a director of Planet Aid. Founded the first US Tvind college, IICD Massachusetts, in 1986 and Planet Aid in 1997. He was reported in 2001 to run a Wall Street fundraising office for Planet Aid.
In the 1970s he is notoriously said to have praised Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge dictator responsible for the death of millions in Cambodia’s ‘killing fields’.
Further information on Mikael Norling available on request
Ester Neltrup
Currently president of Planet Aid, Inc, an organisation she jointly founded in 1997 with Mikael Norling. She is also a former principal of IICD Massachusetts.
We also know that in November 2001 she helped create HPP Inc, an enterprise at the very highest level of Tvind which would have relocated Humana People-to-People to the USA – she was to be secretary. In the event HPP Inc did not get off the ground. However, it indicates that Neltrup is regarded as very senior in the organisation.
“Lynn Sailsbury”
Danish, but emigrated to England in 1995 and has been involved with AS Properties since 1998. She is on the boards of four US/Florida companies: AS Properties, McCorry USA Corp, Allwoods Trading Inc, and Bostic Inc. She shares a TG condo in Miami, The Sterling Condos, with fellow TG member Ann Marie Moeller. Her real name is “Soerensen.” She is considered to be as close to Amdi Pedersen as is Kirsten Larsen.
Anne Hansen
President director of AS Properties Ltd, a TG-run company that is the landlord of three US schools.
Danish police consider her a senior member of ‘The Teachers Group Economy‘, the central financial directorate. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle. She has been connected with almost every key offshore account and trust in the TG financial web, and was a signatory of the $9m Floresta Atlantica deal in Brazil in 1994.
Hansen was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in a failed prosecution in Belgium, 2002.
Further information on Anne Hansen available on request
Michael Hermann
A German-born accountant, who formed the US/Florida based company World Wide Suppliers Inc. in 1995 with fellow TG member Janice Bostic. The company was changed to Bostic Business Services, and then to Bostic Inc. (dissolved 2005). In 2001, Hermann was given power of attorney for Planet Aid Philadelphia, which closed in 2003. He has also been on the board of U’SAgain in Texas along with Per Jensen and Janice Bostic. His official address is the Humana HQ in Zimbabwe, but he shares several addresses with Janice Bostic, including one at the TG’s Sterling Condos in Miami. He uses several alias names and may be the known TC accountant HERMANN LOTZ.
MORE FINANCIAL WIZARDS
Ruth Sejeroe-Olsen
A very senior financial operator, who has been on the board of up to eight Danish-registered Tvind companies, and connected with many of the key offshore companies and private trusts. Danish police say she too played a key role in the acquisition of the $9m Fazenda Jatoba ranch in Brazil in 1994.
Sejeroe-Olsen was charged with fraud by Danish police in 2002, but acquitted in 2006 and no new charges have been made. Her present whereabouts are unknown.
Further information on Ruth Sejeroe-Olsen available on request
Niels Peter Holst
A top Teachers Group money-man – he is today an officer of an offshore Swiss private trust called Humana and PlanetAid Finance SA, in existence since 2005.
His special responsibilities in the 1990s appear to have included creating hidden financial pathways between Africa and Denmark. A private memo he wrote to Poul Joergensen in 1995 suggests ways of secretly moving money between Humana Holland and Angola to avoid financial scrutiny and tax.
He was also the individual named by a former volunteer, Britta Junge as the person who received large amounts of cash she was instructed to smuggle back by air from Angola to Holland during the 1990s.
Niels Holst is close to the Chinese Trayton Group. He was a founding trustee in 1995 of Trayton Holdings, the tax haven-registered holding company. In 2006 he was appointed a non-executive director of the Trayton Group in China.
Bodil Ross Sørensen
Head of Tvind’s schools and described as Amdi Petersen’s second in command, said to operate much like a ‘political commissar’.
Closely involved in Teachers Group’s financial affairs. Chairman of the Humanitarian Foundation from 1987 to 1993, when Danish police believe she had a key role in making grants to bodies which turned out to be front organisations for the TG.
She was charged with fraud in 2002, but found not guilty in 2006. Police have not brought any new charges. Present whereabouts unknown
Further information on Bodil Ross Soerensen available on request
Maria Darsbo
“Chairperson of the Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA People to People Movement”. Based in Zimbabwe.
Jytte Nielsen
Very active over many years in Tvind clothes collection in Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, the UK, Austria, Sweden and Denmark.
She was a trustee of Humana UK and one of those dismissed by the UK Charity Commission following investigations into its financial affairs in 1996.
Else Jensen
Described as a kind of Tvind ‘political commissar’ and key figure in ‘The Teachers Group Economy’. On the board of key offshore trusts and director of several companies. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.
Jensen was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in a failed prosecution in Belgium, 2002-4
Birgitte Krohn
High ranking member of the Teachers Group inner circle, a key trustee of many offshore companies, private trusts and enterprises. Very frequently cited in Danish police investigations. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.
Most recently she has played a key role in construction of the Teachers Group’s $10 million new headquarters and luxury retreat at TG Pacifico in Mexico. Krohn is also believed to be a director of Jersey-registered Fairbank, Cooper, Lyle (FCL), the offshore company that owns the Teachers Groups’s plantations.
Originally Birgitte Krohn was Amdi Petersen’s private cook, arranging his meals according to a special diet.
Krohn was one of eight Teachers Group leaders unsuccessfully charged with money laundering in Belgium in 2002.
Further information on Birgitte Krohn available on request
Anne Nielsen
Senior Teachers Group member known to have been appointed to the boards of several offshore companies, private trusts and other enterprises.
Further information on Anne Nielsen available on request
Marie Lichtenberg
A director of the CCTG college in California (2006), but possibly currently resident in South Africa.
She is the sister of Simon Lichtenberg, founder of the Trayton group of companies in China and rhe man most widely expected to be the next leader of the Teachers Group.
Svend Sørensen
One of the original 100 founder signatories of the Teachers group in around 1970. Since then he has worked for Amdi Petersen all over the world.
Has been a board member of several key offshore accounts and private trusts, and founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle. Was a director of South China Sea Farming SB (Malaysia), a company Danish police alleged was associated with money laundering through a Malaysian sawmill.
Further information on Svend Sørensen available on request
Eva Vestergaard
A trained lawyer, and senior Teachers Group financial manager who has ‘worked secretly with Amdi for years’ and is decribed as ’hard core’.
She has been a board member of many key offshore companies and trusts, and is known to be appointed to two Teachers Group companies currently registered in the UK. She is thought likely to be living in Belize.
Vestergaard was originally among those charged with fraud by Danish police, but charges against her were dropped before the trial began in 2002.
Further information on Eva Vestergaard available on request
Joseph (Joep) Nagel
Dutch-born Nagel was originally Amdi Petersen’s bodyguard, and has since been a board member, director, trustee or shareholder of a wide variety of key Teachers group offshore companies and trusts. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.
Nagel was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in a failed prosecution in Belgium, 2002
Further information on Joseph Nagel available on request
Lena Jensen
THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY
he left with a golden handshake
Henning Bjornlund (Henry Henning)
Today a humble research fellow at the University of South Australia, Adelaide – but before 1989 Henning Bjornlund was a key financial director of the Teachers Group.
According to reports Bjornlund was the ‘financial mastermind’ principally responsible for turning the Tvind TEachers Group from a small alternative school into a multi-billion property empire with landholdings all over the world.
Bjornlund left the Teachers Group suddenly in 1989, reportedly with a large ‘golden handshake’ (perhaps to guarantee his silence).
If so, it has worked. Bjornlund’s university CV unaccountably fails to mention his 15 years with Tvind. His presence at the University has upset many other academics, who have asked the vice chancellor, Denise Bradley, to look into it – but so far without success.
Danish police say they ‘would like to talk to’ Bjornlund if he returns to Denmark.
Further information on Henning Bjornlund available on request
TIMBER TRADERS, FARMERS
and other businessmen
Simon Lichtenberg
Regarded as the ‘crown prince’ most likely to take over as leader of the Teachers Group in future.
In China since the early 1990s, Lichtenberg runs a group of companies based in Shanghai known as the Trayton Group, which manufactures and sells furniture around the world. The Trayton Group is widely regarded as being closely linked to the Teachers Group.
Lichtenberg grew up in the Teachers Group. His parents joined the TG when he was just seven years old, and he was brought up in a private Tvind school. A sister, Marie, is also a leading Teachers group member.
More information on the Trayton Group
Jonas Israel
American-born Jonas Israel runs a well established logging company in Borneo called McCorry and Co, with branches in the USA
Logging is a core business activity for the Teachers Group and the company fits in with the pattern of timber trading. In fact Israel has long been a senior Teachers Group operator. He was a director of several companies in Malaysia investigated by Danish police, and has been associated with a large number of the Teachers Group’s international portfolio of offshore companies and private trusts.
Further information on Jonas Israel is available on request
Soren Sorensen
Known as ‘The Farmer’, this senior Teachers Group member manages much TG agribusiness in Central and South America.
He is currently believed to be responsible for the Fazenda Jatoba timber and fruit plantation in Brazil, and is also on the board of the new Teachers Group ‘headquarters building’, TG Pacifico, in San Juan de las Pulgas, Mexico. Previously, until around 2003, he was manager of the Teachers Group banana plantations in Belize and Ecuador.
Further information on Soren Sorensen is available on request
Flemming Gustafsson
Currently thought to be in Zimbabwe, where he is in charge of several large eucalyptus plantations – but Flemming Gustasson has a colourful past with the Teachers Group.
In early 2008, Gustafsson and fellow TG member Birgit Dinesen-Jensen were on the run from the Russian FSB, after their Siberian logging company collapsed amid allegations of fraud.
Previously, up to 2000, Gustafsson was a key director of EC Trading, an Amsterdam clothes trading company that went bust in very grubby circumstances. In 2002-4, Gustafsson was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in Belgium. The prosecution failed for ‘lack of evidence’.
See Hot Money: the European clothes laundry
Further information on Flemming Gustafsson is available on request
Kim Bonde Andersen
A key member of ‘The Teachers Group Economy’, associated with various dodgy enterprises – notably the supposed sawmill company in Malaysia investigated by police.
Andersen was most recently in charge of the failed Siberian logging venture, Taiga Industries, that closed in 2008 following allegations of fraud and a complaint to the Russian FSB.
Sune Jørgensen
Curator of ‘Friends Forever’ and leader of Tvind’s Kunstforening (Tvinds Arts Association)
last revised 7th April 2009
Gallery: the top 30 Teachers Group members
On November - 29 - 2009
Do you have additional information or a photograph
of any of these people? Please tell us.
| MISSING!
Five on the run from police. |
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Kirsten Fuglsbjerg |
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GOING TO JAIL Prosecuted for fraud |
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FIVE IN THE USA Signatories of various companies and not-for-profits |
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“Lynn Sailsbury” |
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MORE FINANCIAL WIZARDS The mystery men and women behind the financial empire |
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Lena Jensen |
and the one that got away…. |
Henning Bjornlund |
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TIMBER TRADERS, FARMERS and other businessmen |
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Soren Sorensen |
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Last revised 22nd May 2009
Profile: 30 financial wizards in the Teachers Group
On November - 29 - 2009
THE TOP 30
TEACHERS GROUP MEMBERS
Who they are
Back to gallery
Do you have additional information or a photograph
of any of these people? Please tell us.
FIVE WANTED BY POLICE
All five left Denmark in late 2006. The Danish government has asked police forces abroad for help to locate them, and it is likely they would be charged with fraud if they returned to Denmark
Mogens Amdi Petersen
Born 1939. Founder of Tvind and of the Teachers Group in 1969-70 and unchallenged leader since.
Built up the Tvind school movement in Denmark in the 1970s, but went ‘underground’ in 1979 and his whereabouts were unknown for 22 years. In 2001 he was found to be living in a $7m luxury apartment in Miami and he was arrested, charged with fraud and extradited to Denmark. In late 2006, after a three year trial in which he was found not guilty, he fled Denmark to avoid a retrial and is now a fugitive, believed to be living in Mexico.
More on Amdi Petersen
Kirsten Larsen
Joint leader of the Tvind Teachers Group with Amdi Petersen. Often described as ‘Amdi’s chief girlfriend’ and also his regular driver.
Documented as chairman or manager of several key Jersey-registered offshore companies, and owner of a Cayman-registered farming company. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle. One of eight ‘Teachers’ charged with fraud in 2002, now a fugitive abroad and believed to be living in Mexico.
Further information on Kirsten Larsen available on request
Marlene Gunst
Board member of many Teachers Group companies and private trusts for many years. She is a director of several wealthy Teachers Group companies we have recently located in the USA.
According to Danish police, Gunst played a key part in arranging money transfers for the 1994 purchase of the $9 million Fazenda Jatoba ranch in Brazil. Following Danish police inquiries, she left Denmark for Britain in 2001, using a Kensington mailbox address.
Charged with fraud in 2002, acquitted in 2006, but now a fugitive abroad and believed to be living in Mexico. She has now been intercepted by police at Heathrow Airport and served with legal papers obliging her to attend trial in Denmark.
Further information on Marlene Gunst available on request
Kirsten Fuglsbjerg (Christie Pipps)
A trained lawyer, connected to many Teachers Group enterprises, key offshore companies and trusts, including recently in the USA. According to Danish police, signed for the Teachers Group’s $9m purchase of Fazenda Jatoba, Brazil in 1994. Has used the name Christie Pipps since 1992.
She has been accused of fraud in two separate cases. A charge of money laundering by Belgian police in 2002 was withdrawn. Also charged with fraud in Denmark, but acquitted in 2006. Now a fugitive abroad, whereabouts unknown.
Further information on Kirsten Fuglsbjerg available on request
Sten Byrner
According to Danish police, ‘centrally placed’ in Tvind and a key member of the ‘Teachers Group Economy’, the central financial directorate, 1987-92. In 2002 police charged him in relation to funds and trusts he helped manage ten years earlier.
Byrner admitted several minor frauds in the 2002-2006 Teachers Group fraud trial, and received a suspended sentence. He is currently a fugitive outside Denmark, whereabouts unknown, and faces further charges if he returns.
Further information on Sten Byrner available on request
IN JAIL
Convicted of fraud, January 2009. The only one of six defendants
caught by Danish police in late 2006 – the rest fled abroad
Poul Jørgensen
Convicted of fraud in Denmark in January 2009 in connection with Teachers Group finances. He was found guilty of embezzlement of 15 million DKK, and tax fraud of 53 million DKK.
Described as ‘Tvind spokesman’ and in day-to-day control of Teachers Group affairs since 1979. Jørgensen is a trained lawyer. He was until 2001 chairman of two key financial trusts – the Humanitarian Fund and the Faelleseje Foundation.
Jørgensen is the only one of six Tvind leaders served with legal papers in late 2006 – five others evaded police and fled abroad to escape prosecution.
Further information on Poul Jørgensen available on request
FIVE IN THE USA
The most prominent names in our research in the USA
Mikael Norling
A key Tvind organiser. Current chairman of CCTG, and a director of Planet Aid. Founded the first US Tvind college, IICD Massachusetts, in 1986 and Planet Aid in 1997. He was reported in 2001 to run a Wall Street fundraising office for Planet Aid.
In the 1970s he is notoriously said to have praised Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge dictator responsible for the death of millions in Cambodia’s ‘killing fields’.
Further information on Mikael Norling available on request
Ester Neltrup
Currently president of Planet Aid, Inc, an organisation she jointly founded in 1997 with Mikael Norling. She is also a former principal of IICD Massachusetts.
We also know that in November 2001 she helped create HPP Inc, an enterprise at the very highest level of Tvind which would have relocated Humana People-to-People to the USA – she was to be secretary. In the event HPP Inc did not get off the ground. However, it indicates that Neltrup is regarded as very senior in the organisation.
“Lynn Sailsbury”
Danish, but emigrated to England in 1995 and has been involved with AS Properties since 1998. She is on the boards of four US/Florida companies: AS Properties, McCorry USA Corp, Allwoods Trading Inc, and Bostic Inc. She shares a TG condo in Miami, The Sterling Condos, with fellow TG member Ann Marie Moeller. Her real name is “Soerensen.” She is considered to be as close to Amdi Pedersen as is Kirsten Larsen.
Anne Hansen
President director of AS Properties Ltd, a TG-run company that is the landlord of three US schools.
Danish police consider her a senior member of ‘The Teachers Group Economy’, the central financial directorate. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle. She has been connected with almost every key offshore account and trust in the TG financial web, and was a signatory of the $9m Floresta Atlantica deal in Brazil in 1994.
Hansen was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in a failed prosecution in Belgium, 2002.
Further information on Anne Hansen available on request
Michael Hermann
A German-born accountant, who formed the US/Florida based company World Wide Suppliers Inc. in 1995 with fellow TG member Janice Bostic. The company was changed to Bostic Business Services, and then to Bostic Inc. (dissolved 2005). In 2001, Hermann was given power of attorney for Planet Aid Philadelphia, which closed in 2003. He has also been on the board of U’SAgain in Texas along with Per Jensen and Janice Bostic. His official address is the Humana HQ in Zimbabwe, but he shares several addresses with Janice Bostic, including one at the TG’s Sterling Condos in Miami. He uses several alias names and may be the known TC accountant HERMANN LOTZ.
MORE FINANCIAL WIZARDS
Ruth Sejeroe-Olsen
A very senior financial operator, who has been on the board of up to eight Danish-registered Tvind companies, and connected with many of the key offshore companies and private trusts. Danish police say she too played a key role in the acquisition of the $9m Fazenda Jatoba ranch in Brazil in 1994.
Sejeroe-Olsen was charged with fraud by Danish police in 2002, but acquitted in 2006 and no new charges have been made. Her present whereabouts are unknown.
Further information on Ruth Sejeroe-Olsen available on request
Niels Peter Holst
A top Teachers Group money-man – he is today an officer of an offshore Swiss private trust called Humana and PlanetAid Finance SA, in existence since 2005.
His special responsibilities in the 1990s appear to have included creating hidden financial pathways between Africa and Denmark. A private memo he wrote to Poul Joergensen in 1995 suggests ways of secretly moving money between Humana Holland and Angola to avoid financial scrutiny and tax.
He was also the individual named by a former volunteer, Britta Junge as the person who received large amounts of cash she was instructed to smuggle back by air from Angola to Holland during the 1990s.
Niels Holst is close to the Chinese Trayton Group. He was a founding trustee in 1995 of Trayton Holdings, the tax haven-registered holding company. In 2006 he was appointed a non-executive director of the Trayton Group in China.
Bodil Ross Sørensen
Head of Tvind’s schools and described as Amdi Petersen’s second in command, said to operate much like a ‘political commissar’.
Closely involved in Teachers Group’s financial affairs. Chairman of the Humanitarian Foundation from 1987 to 1993, when Danish police believe she had a key role in making grants to bodies which turned out to be front organisations for the TG.
She was charged with fraud in 2002, but found not guilty in 2006. Police have not brought any new charges. Present whereabouts unknown
Further information on Bodil Ross Soerensen available on request
Maria Darsbo
“Chairperson of the Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA People to People Movement”. Based in Zimbabwe.
Jytte Nielsen
Very active over many years in Tvind clothes collection in Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, the UK, Austria, Sweden and Denmark.
She was a trustee of Humana UK and one of those dismissed by the UK Charity Commission following investigations into its financial affairs in 1996.
Else Jensen
Described as a kind of Tvind ‘political commissar’ and key figure in ‘The Teachers Group Economy’. On the board of key offshore trusts and director of several companies. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.
Jensen was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in a failed prosecution in Belgium, 2002-4
Birgitte Krohn
High ranking member of the Teachers Group inner circle, a key trustee of many offshore companies, private trusts and enterprises. Very frequently cited in Danish police investigations. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.
Most recently she has played a key role in construction of the Teachers Group’s $10 million new headquarters and luxury retreat at TG Pacifico in Mexico. Krohn is also believed to be a director of Jersey-registered Fairbank, Cooper, Lyle (FCL), the offshore company that owns the Teachers Groups’s plantations.
Originally Birgitte Krohn was Amdi Petersen’s private cook, arranging his meals according to a special diet.
Krohn was one of eight Teachers Group leaders unsuccessfully charged with money laundering in Belgium in 2002.
Further information on Birgitte Krohn available on request
Anne Nielsen
Senior Teachers Group member known to have been appointed to the boards of several offshore companies, private trusts and other enterprises.
Further information on Anne Nielsen available on request
Marie Lichtenberg
A director of the CCTG college in California (2006), but possibly currently resident in South Africa.
She is the sister of Simon Lichtenberg, founder of the Trayton group of companies in China and rhe man most widely expected to be the next leader of the Teachers Group.
Svend Sørensen
One of the original 100 founder signatories of the Teachers group in around 1970. Since then he has worked for Amdi Petersen all over the world.
Has been a board member of several key offshore accounts and private trusts, and founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle. Was a director of South China Sea Farming SB (Malaysia), a company Danish police alleged was associated with money laundering through a Malaysian sawmill.
Further information on Svend Sørensen available on request
Eva Vestergaard
A trained lawyer, and senior Teachers Group financial manager who has ‘worked secretly with Amdi for years’ and is decribed as ‘hard core’.
She has been a board member of many key offshore companies and trusts, and is known to be appointed to two Teachers Group companies currently registered in the UK. She is thought likely to be living in Belize.
Vestergaard was originally among those charged with fraud by Danish police, but charges against her were dropped before the trial began in 2002.
Further information on Eva Vestergaard available on request
Joseph (Joep) Nagel
Dutch-born Nagel was originally Amdi Petersen’s bodyguard, and has since been a board member, director, trustee or shareholder of a wide variety of key Teachers group offshore companies and trusts. A founder director of Fairbank, Cooper and Lyle.
Nagel was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in a failed prosecution in Belgium, 2002
Further information on Joseph Nagel available on request
Lena Jensen
THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY
he left with a golden handshake
Henning Bjornlund (Henry Henning)
Today a humble research fellow at the University of South Australia, Adelaide – but before 1989 Henning Bjornlund was a key financial director of the Teachers Group.
According to reports Bjornlund was the ‘financial mastermind’ principally responsible for turning the Tvind TEachers Group from a small alternative school into a multi-billion property empire with landholdings all over the world.
Bjornlund left the Teachers Group suddenly in 1989, reportedly with a large ‘golden handshake’ (perhaps to guarantee his silence).
If so, it has worked. Bjornlund’s university CV unaccountably fails to mention his 15 years with Tvind. His presence at the University has upset many other academics, who have asked the vice chancellor, Denise Bradley, to look into it – but so far without success.
Danish police say they ‘would like to talk to’ Bjornlund if he returns to Denmark.
Further information on Henning Bjornlund available on request
TIMBER TRADERS, FARMERS
and other businessmen
Simon Lichtenberg
Regarded as the ‘crown prince’ most likely to take over as leader of the Teachers Group in future.
In China since the early 1990s, Lichtenberg runs a group of companies based in Shanghai known as the Trayton Group, which manufactures and sells furniture around the world. The Trayton Group is widely regarded as being closely linked to the Teachers Group.
Lichtenberg grew up in the Teachers Group. His parents joined the TG when he was just seven years old, and he was brought up in a private Tvind school. A sister, Marie, is also a leading Teachers group member.
More information on the Trayton Group
Jonas Israel
American-born Jonas Israel runs a well established logging company in Borneo called McCorry and Co, with branches in the USA
Logging is a core business activity for the Teachers Group and the company fits in with the pattern of timber trading. In fact Israel has long been a senior Teachers Group operator. He was a director of several companies in Malaysia investigated by Danish police, and has been associated with a large number of the Teachers Group’s international portfolio of offshore companies and private trusts.
Further information on Jonas Israel is available on request
Soren Sorensen
Known as ‘The Farmer’, this senior Teachers Group member manages much TG agribusiness in Central and South America.
He is currently believed to be responsible for the Fazenda Jatoba timber and fruit plantation in Brazil, and is also on the board of the new Teachers Group ‘headquarters building’, TG Pacifico, in San Juan de las Pulgas, Mexico. Previously, until around 2003, he was manager of the Teachers Group banana plantations in Belize and Ecuador.
Further information on Soren Sorensen is available on request
Flemming Gustafsson
Currently thought to be in Zimbabwe, where he is in charge of several large eucalyptus plantations – but Flemming Gustasson has a colourful past with the Teachers Group.
In early 2008, Gustafsson and fellow TG member Birgit Dinesen-Jensen were on the run from the Russian FSB, after their Siberian logging company collapsed amid allegations of fraud.
Previously, up to 2000, Gustafsson was a key director of EC Trading, an Amsterdam clothes trading company that went bust in very grubby circumstances. In 2002-4, Gustafsson was one of eight TG members accused of money laundering in Belgium. The prosecution failed for ‘lack of evidence’.
See Hot Money: the European clothes laundry
Further information on Flemming Gustafsson is available on request
Kim Bonde Andersen
A key member of ‘The Teachers Group Economy’, associated with various dodgy enterprises – notably the supposed sawmill company in Malaysia investigated by police.
Andersen was most recently in charge of the failed Siberian logging venture, Taiga Industries, that closed in 2008 following allegations of fraud and a complaint to the Russian FSB.
Sune Jørgensen
Curator of ‘Friends Forever’ and leader of Tvind’s Kunstforening (Tvinds Arts Association)
last revised 7th April 2009
Amdi Petersen – on the run from police
On November - 29 - 2009
Wanted by police, a fugitive from justice – the ‘guru’ who
founded the Teachers Group, Tvind and Humana
 |
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.
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.
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.
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
Have we made a mistake? If you have a factual correction or new information, please tell us.
Last revised 31st October 2009
