the trial of Amdi Petersen

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Trial reports - continued

 

---

30th October 2003:   Tvind's speaker in the dock

As a co-defendant in the Tvind case, the speaker of many years of the school compound Poul Jrgensen has been examined on Thursday for the first time.

The speaker started his examination which is planned for several days, by warming up what is designed to be a rhetorical school riding between him and the other parts in the court buiding in rhus.
  
To judgde after the first half hour of examination, there is nothing which would suggest that his examination will shorten the marathon case which in spite of attempts to the contrary will be extended until the end of 2005.

The 59 years old Poul Jrgensen has been the more or less official speaker of the Tvind schools for decades, while the co-founder of Tvind, Mogens Amdi Petersen, has hidden himself abroard, until in february last year he was taken in prison in USA and accused for comprehensive tax fraud.

Totally, 8 Tvind members are accused in the case about misuse of public money for 50 millions of crowns, and Poul Jrgensen is just the third one who has been examined in the case up to now.

Poul Jrgensen explained that the Teacher's Group of the Tvind Schools has been called a "political party" or a "witch movement", when via a change of law and after a press campaign in 1985 the "humanitarian fund" was created - which is believed today by the prosecutors to have unlawfully used public money.

"It were the ministers of justice at that time, Isi Foighel (K) and
Mogens Lykketoft (S), who were responsible for the change of law", Poul  Jrgensen said.

The examination of Poul Jrgensen will continue next Wednesday.

 

---

22nd October 2003:  As expected, there was a court session yesterday with Amdi being present, but no essential contents were yet published.

The judge and the prosecutors are worried about the many delays. To speed up the case, the number of witnesses was reduced by 22 so that only 24 witnesses are left now.

The defence criticized that there were doubts about Amdis medical attest when he was absent in the beginning of the month, and they suspected that the defendants were not treated equally. The prosecutor said that the doubts were not caused by the person being absent, but by the fact that the medical attest was issued in Harare, thr capital of Zimbabwe.

The case is expected to continue today and I hope to be able to report more later today.  [FG]

---

Amdi Petersen was in the outpatient department of the hospital in Harare only for two hours
4. Oct. 2003

The founder of the Tvind combine, Mogens Amdi Petersen, who seemingly is too sick to come home to his own court case, is not an in-patient of the hospital of Zimbabwe's capital Harare. And that also never was the case, writes Ekstra Bladet.

A chief nurse of the private hospital The Avenues Clinic in Harare explains that Mogens Amdi Petersen came on Sunday to the outpatient department and stayed there for two hours - from 16:15 to 18:20.

Mr. Petersen did not receive any medical treament, and he was not so sick that we should have kept him as an in-patient, the chief nurse, Mrs. Mtenje, said to Extra Bladet.

On his desire we gave him a result with the diagnosis "Erythema
multiforme", and then we sent him home, she adds.

In Ringkbing, judge Steen Lvbjerg confirms that in the result from
Zimbabwe, nothing was said about Mr. Peter being an in-patient.

___________

Similar articles in:

http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=363644:fid=100036718/
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=288797
http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=2048004:fid=6844/

---

Friday 3rd Oct 2003:        Reported today that the official medical result from an African physician in Zimbabwe has arrived this morning (2 October) by telefax at the Ringkbing court. So the formalities are fulfilled to postpone the session
to 22 October.

http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=362958/
http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=2044226/
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=288378

 

---

2nd October 2003:    There were some additional news in Danish newspapers yesterday, but not very essential. They just say that Amdi has sent a report and a photo of his illness, but there was no official medical result yet from an African
physician. A Danish physician from Grindsted looked at the photo and pleaded to postpone the court session, which already is delayed by several weeks, and it is assumed that they will need 10 to 15 more sessions than originally planned. In the meantime, the Danish prosecutors consider to have changed the law for administration of justice so that they can continue such cases even in absence of a defendant, if the contents of the
session is not too important fro him/her, because many similar cases against business delinquency (in Danish "selskabstmmersagerne", literally  "Cases of emptiers of society", this was a word I had to ask our Danish
friends for) are drawn into the length by the same reason especially if there are several defendants.    FG

The URL-s are:

http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=362554/
http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=362588/
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=288183
http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=2042218

---

Amdi "falls ill" in Zimbabwe
Monday 29th Sept 2003

there are the URL-s of three articles in Danish newspapers:

http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=362122/
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=287981
http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=2039236:fid=6844/

According to his Danish physician, Mogens Amdi Petersen has got an allergic reaction and was sent to a hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe. So the court sessions planned for Wednesday and Thursday this week are cancelled. His lawyer Anders Boelskifte promised that Amdi would present himself at the court again at the next session on 22nd October.

Helge Adam Mller, juristic speaker of the conservative party, said he would recommend an unbiased physician to check if Amdi really is ill. He reminded that the prosecutor suggested that Amdi should deliver his passport when he was set free, but the court thought that would not be necessary.

The Tvind organisation Humana People to People has its headquarter in Zimbabwe.

(Translator's comment: This last sentence is very important because, as you know, many Humana organisations now claim that they "have nothing to do with Tvind").

---

Investigation in the USA exposes Amdi
15 August 2003
from Berlingske Tidende

Documents from Mogens Amdi Petersen's luxury apartment in the USA reveal that he lived a life of luxury costing up to 180.000 Danish crowns per month.    New material considerably supports the prosecution case and undermines the credibility of Mogens Amdi Petersen.    More

 

---

Prosecution seeks evidence from USA, France and Britain
13 August 2003
from Berlingske Tidende, 

Papers recently delivered from the USA about Amdi's luxury apartments on Fisher Island may be a gold mine for the prosecutor because they reveal a lot about the power structure in Tvind....Prosecutors are working to get access to accounts in France and England which could reveal the cash flow in the Tvind organisation, and to confiscate further documents from the British auditor David Swain who was examined during the summer vacations.    More

 

---

Listener at Tvind case arrested with a tape recorder
7. August 2003
from Politiken,

A listener with a hidden tape recorder was arrested on Thursday during the Tvind court session in rhus.    It is forbidden to tape at Danish court cases.   More

---

Finally an examination in the Tvind case
Thursday 19th June 2003
from Berlingske Tidende

On the 16th day of court sessions in the Tvind case they finally succeeded in examining one more of the eight accused persons, after Mogens Amdi Petersen had been examined in December and January.

It was Bodil Ross Srensen, former president of the fund which is said to be implicated in fraud, who sat down on the witness's chair in rhus.

The examination, however, did not lead at all to a clearing up of the suspicion related to the fraud of over 50 million crowns in the form of tax fraud and abuse of trusted money.

Instead, she was reading a sermon being 20 to 30 years old which used to be read to people before they decided to become members of the Teacher's Group.   Her lawyer, Merete Stagetorn, explained that this would be necessary in order to understand the circumstances in the Teacher's Group
which today has about 700 members.

The prosecutors think that the tax-exempt contributions of the Teachers to the Tvind-related fund had been used for other purpose than humanitarian, environmental or research oriented, as it should have been.

The examination of Bodil Ross Srensen will continue on Wednesday next week.

/ritzau/

http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=333106/

Identical articles, all by Ritzau, also in:

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1877062/ Jyllands-Posten

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=274829 Politiken

Politiken gives also a summary of the Tvind case:

Tvind's founder Mogens Amdi Petersen, together with his mate Kirsten Larsen und the speaker Poul Jrgensen, is accused for embezzlement for 57,3 millions of crowns and tax fraud for 51,7 millions of crowns.

Five other Tvind managers are acused for embezzlement and tax fraud for between 25 and 36 millions of crowns.

The core in the case is Tvind's humanitarian fund, in which 339 members of Tvind's Teacher's Group have payed in tax exempt 15 percent of their salary, after what the fund has payed out 75 millions of crowns.

According to Tvind, entirely according to the rules for humanitarian purpose, research and environment protection.

According to the police and the prosecutor, to the Tvind leaders themselves or to acrtivities which they control.

 

---

Wednesday April 9th - Thursday June 19th:  no information available

 

---

Days 4 and 5 Wednesday-Thursday April 2nd-3rd 2003

The defence made the statement that a Tvind combine simply does not exist at all.   They claimed that there was no Tvind central leadership, no Tvind main office, no Tvind factories, no Tvind properties.   Also no Tvind Teachers Group, but just independent individuals who have created a special style of life.

Tvind has once been a cooperation of some schools which ceased its operation, today it is only a windmill and a locality in Jylland. Also, there could not have been any common responsibility and there were no agreements in advance related to activities of the Humanitarian Fund. Also, they denied any informal hierarchical structure. There were no reason to condemn anybody, except perhaps Bodil Ross Srensen and Poul Jrgensen who have been formally responsible for the Humanitarian
Fund.

The defence also called it to be dirty tricks that the prosecutors had
compared the defendants with rockers, thus showing missing objectivity.
They said that 90 percent of what had been written in the media about
Tvind were lies and the remaining 10 percent were distorted. They claimed
that quotations from the internal documents found by the police at the raid
in April 2001 were wrong. In a three hours speech, one of them described
Tvind as a fantastic and successful movement which was persecuted by
everyone and everything.   It was obvious and finally also admitted that this
description had been written by the defendants themselves.

But it also happened that the defenders contradicted themselves. One of
them started a phrase by saying "Two months after Steen Byrner had left the combine ..." and then he added "Also a great spirit may say nonsense", and later on he talked about "members of the TeachersGroup" while he previously had said that the TG is not an association and therefore it cannot have members, which made the prosecutors laugh.

At the end of the first day, only 77 of the 460 indictment points have been
"taken apart" by the defenders and at the end of the second day it was
222. The defenders will continue next week to complete this business.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1752078/
Hard beats to the prosecutors in Tvind case
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=264483
Tvind defenders in counter attack
http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=310714/
Tvind defence draws a picture of persecution
http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1753834:fid=6844/
Defenders: Tvind is just a locality
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=264646
Lawyer: Tvind does not exist at all
http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=311128/
Defenders with contradictions

The next session is scheduled for Wednesday 9th April

---

Day 3 Wednesday March 12th 2003

On 24 June 1987, the Tvind combine's large fund granted 350.000 crowns for one of the so-called research projects one month before the request for the project had been received.

According to the prosecutor's presentation in the Tvind case, attachments
and reports from board meetings show that the project "International
Distributors", dealing among other things with re-usage of clothes from
the Western world for the poor countries, received the ok from the fund one month before the request had been received on 24 July.

During the third meeting in the comprehensive case, where eight Tvind
leaders are accused for deception and tax fraud, the prosecutor Poul Gade
presented a long range of documents which should demonstrate that the Tvind system under the cover of research activity made millions circulate between thr large fund and other projects controlled by Tvind, to escape taxation.

Great amusement

When the authorities in 1986 strengthened the rules to hit the earlier
Tvind fund in which the members of the TG had payed in up to 80 percent of their salary, Tvind with Mogens Amdi Petersen on the top created a new fund, which to the great amusementof the Tvind teachers got the name "Fund for the support of humanitarian goals, for the promotion of research and for environment protection".

Limitations

Ths name was identical to the wording of the law in which it was enjoined
that money must only be taken out for humanitarian goals, for the promotion of research and for environment protection. Other limitations were that the goal of the fund should  be charitable and at maximum 15 percent of the salary should be paid in.

The fund was created in January 1987, and only a few months later the Tvind people had created another fund, the trade fund IFAS (Institute for
Scientific Research and Applied Sciences) which served as a connecting link between the large fund and other Tvind activities, which, according to the indictment bill, had nothing to do with research.

Research projects

IFAS organized among others the project "Global Reseach", sending a ship with Tvind researchers onboard to Central America to find suitable research project which could be supported. The research leader onboard of the ship "Store Klaus" was the later ex-member Hans la Cour, possibly the most important witness of the prosecution in the case.

The same la Cour described later on how one should identify possible
research projects for IFAS, but none of the projects ever was realized or
supported. According to la Cour, the request form and the documentation
were in English in order to make it more complicated for the Danish tax
authorities.

Project canceled

The ship project "Global Research", originally planned for 5 years, was
canceled already after less than one year. According to la Cour allegedly
because the Tvind management got cold feet, when a furious member of the crew found out that the projects would never receive a single crown, and threated to bail out.

According to the indictment bill, the Tvind fund managed anyway in 1987 to pay 2,4 million crowns, via IFAS, to "Global Research".

The prosecutors think that only in 1987, the Tvind fund payed 5.4 million
crowns, via IFAS, to itself, in contradiction to the goal of the fund.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1715444/

Day 2 Thursday March 6th

On Thursday, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade compared the Tvind management with the management of a Rocker group. As the only defendant, Amid Pertsen did not follow the documents during the presentation of the case.

From the very morning on, the tone was sharp when the public prosecutors in the case of Tvinds humanitarian fund presented their views of the case.

We have tried to get 40 witnesses to speak out. But all of them refused.
This probably only happens in a Rocker environment, that we can see such a strong control of people, public prosecutor Poul Gade said at his
presentation.

He indicated that, according to the prosecutor's opinion, the members of
Tvind's teacher's group are entirely controlled by Tvind's founder Mogens
Amdi Petersen, who, together with seven other managers of Tvind, is accused at the town court for embezzlement and tax fraud.

Poul Gade stated in sharp phrases that he intends to prove at the court
that Tvind's humanitarian fund is not at all a fund in the proper sense.

We can rather talk about that the fund is a scenery which should make the authorities believe that the money from the fund is used for charitable
purpose. But behind the scenery there was quite another plan with the
fund, the prosecutor said, who called the fund more a fake than a fact.

The fund with its full name "Fund for the support of humanitarian goals,
for the support of research and for environment protection" has, according
to the prosecutors, just been established to make sure that about 75
million crowns, paid-up taxfree by 339 Tvind-teachers, could go back to
Tvind itself.

An allegation which was rejected by all eight defendants from Tvind's
management.
 
Four questions

Public prosecutor Pouls Gade statet to the court that the prosecutors would
try to answer four questions:
Who decided about the fund?
How was the money used?
Which information was given to the authorities?
Who had the responsibilty for the usage of the money from the fund?

Three possibilities

According to Gade there are three possibilities for the outcome of the case:
- All eight defendants will be condemned.
- Only the two persons having officially been responsible for the fund -
Poul Jrgensen und Bodil Ross Srensen - will be condemned.
- Nobody will be condemned.

In that connection, Gade asked the defenders to give notice as soon as
possible whether the eight defendants regard their possible responsibility
as a common or as an individual matter. The defenders announced that they wuld do this earliest at a court session in april.

Several times, the prosecutor critisized the defenders for not having given
notice about which parts of the bill of indictment they would reject. A
representative of the defenders, Jan Erik Kornerup Jensen, rejected these
critics and said, the defenders would present their rejections together and
at once.

Request for payment rejected

Also yesterday, the court took position at the defender's request for a
payment of 18.500 crowns per court day and per defender, plus reimbursement of expenses.

The court rejected the request of the defenders and fixed the payment at
about 16.400 crowns per defender and day, plus reimbursement of expenses.
But it openend the possibility to increase this amount, if the defenders
could prove a justification for additional usage of time.

The main person in the case, Mogens Amdi Petersen, showed a nearly
demonstrative lack of interest for the case.

While the other defendants sat and looked at the documents of the case as
they were shown on the 20 flat screens in the court room, Amdi had not even switched on his screen.

He sat and stared and in even intervals was sighing and heavily yawning.
After the session, he stated to the press:

According to the advice of my defensor, I have nothing to say - not before the case will be closed. This advice I have received.

At the next session in the case - which will take place next week - the
prosecution authority will start to go through the first eight of totally
eleven projects, about which the prosecutors believe that they have
received undue support from Tvinds humanitarian fund.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1705428:fid=6844/

The case against Amdi Petersen and the other 7 leaders of the Tvind empire is a very normal case about economical criminality, where it should be decided if the defendants have taken money which they should not have
taken. But in a single point it is different from most of them: No teacher
from Tvind wanted to contribute to the clearing up. This was said by one of the prosecutors, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade, when he on Thurday presented the case in the building of the Western Country Court in rhus.

After consultation with my defender, I have nothing to say before the case is completed, said Amdi Petersen

Among the defendants, it is only the leader, Amdi Petersen, and the
speaker, Poul Jrgensen, who wanted to talk to the police, the prosecutor
said.

The police has spoken with 40 mebers of the teacher's group, but nobody of them wanted to speak out. This is very unnormal. I don't believe one would experience this in a Rotary club. This would only happen in a gang of Rockers, Poul Gade said.

The breakthrough came when the police had access to the computers which were confiscated in april 2001 at eight different Tvind locations. By that, the police was able for the first time to describe the complete
organisation of Tvind, Poul Gade said, who told about a combine equaly
large as the bigest multinational combines.

In this carefully planned organisation, Tvinds humanitarian fund is only
one of many sources of income for the common cashbox of the teacher's
group, according to the prosecution authority.

Pure fiction

This means that the money which is going into Tvind's humanitarian fund,
is regarded as an income source for the cashbox of the teacher's group.
This information has not been given to the fund auhorities or tax
auhtorities, Poul Gade said, who regards the fund as a pure fiction.

This is not a fund. This is an outward show with something behind, the
prosecutor said, and only on that background one could talk about tax
fraud. "The core in the case is, whether the court will follow the
prosecutors and say yes, so it was, or if they will say, yes, that is
punishable, but only for those who had the formal responsibility, these are
Poul Jrgensen and Bodil Ross Srensen, or if they find there is nothing
punishable, Pould Gade said.

Not much to say

The 12 defenders will first reply to the prosecutor's presentation in court
sessions in april. And after the two day's sessions in rhus, Mogens Amdi
Petersen has not much to say either:

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=259171

The Tvind case will cost about 15 million Danish crowns only for the 12 defenders for the 8 defendants. Every defender can look forward to about 1,2 millions.

The court in Ringkbing decided today the payment to be 15.000 crows per lawyer per day, added value tax included. 80 court days are expected which results in a total of 14,4 millions. In addition they will be payed for
hotel and staying and possible extra use of time because the case is so
comprehensive. The payment per hour is 1100 crowns, half if it for
traveling hours. This is for the lawyers only.

But there is also a judge, another judge, two courtmen, another courtman
and three prosecutors, all who travel to rhus for those days when the case is treated.

The case concerns tax fraud, embezzlement, abuse of trust for until 57
millions.

/ritzau/  http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260520/

---

Day 1 March 5th:   Today it was the serious start of the case which is expected to last many months. Initially, prosecutors and defenders were fighting each other, because the defenders each request 18.500 kroner per day. The judge has not yet decided about that. They also were fighting about the schedule of the case. Though the prosecutors thought that the case could be ready until the end of the year 2003 in 45 days, the lawyers had little room in their time schedule for that case, so the last meeting in court will be on 6 october 2004.

The interest of the public was moderate.

Mogens Amdi Petersen was not charming as earlier and not willing to talk to the press and to the banana workers. He and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen even switched off the computer screens they had in front of them.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

A listener with a hidden tape recorder was arrested on Thursday during the Tvind court session in rhus.    It is forbidden to tape at Danish court cases.   More

http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=333106/

Identical articles, all by Ritzau, also in:

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1877062/ Jyllands-Posten

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=274829 Politiken

Politiken gives also a summary of the Tvind case:

Tvind's founder Mogens Amdi Petersen, together with his mate Kirsten Larsen und the speaker Poul Jrgensen, is accused for embezzlement for 57,3 millions of crowns and tax fraud for 51,7 millions of crowns.

Five other Tvind managers are acused for embezzlement and tax fraud for between 25 and 36 millions of crowns.

The core in the case is Tvind's humanitarian fund, in which 339 members of Tvind's Teacher's Group have payed in tax exempt 15 percent of their salary, after what the fund has payed out 75 millions of crowns.

According to Tvind, entirely according to the rules for humanitarian purpose, research and environment protection.

According to the police and the prosecutor, to the Tvind leaders themselves or to acrtivities which they control.

 

---

Wednesday April 9th - Thursday June 19th:  no information available

 

---

Days 4 and 5 Wednesday-Thursday April 2nd-3rd 2003

The defence made the statement that a Tvind combine simply does not exist at all.   They claimed that there was no Tvind central leadership, no Tvind main office, no Tvind factories, no Tvind properties.   Also no Tvind Teachers Group, but just independent individuals who have created a special style of life.

Tvind has once been a cooperation of some schools which ceased its operation, today it is only a windmill and a locality in Jylland. Also, there could not have been any common responsibility and there were no agreements in advance related to activities of the Humanitarian Fund. Also, they denied any informal hierarchical structure. There were no reason to condemn anybody, except perhaps Bodil Ross Srensen and Poul Jrgensen who have been formally responsible for the Humanitarian
Fund.

The defence also called it to be dirty tricks that the prosecutors had
compared the defendants with rockers, thus showing missing objectivity.
They said that 90 percent of what had been written in the media about
Tvind were lies and the remaining 10 percent were distorted. They claimed
that quotations from the internal documents found by the police at the raid
in April 2001 were wrong. In a three hours speech, one of them described
Tvind as a fantastic and successful movement which was persecuted by
everyone and everything.   It was obvious and finally also admitted that this
description had been written by the defendants themselves.

But it also happened that the defenders contradicted themselves. One of
them started a phrase by saying "Two months after Steen Byrner had left the combine ..." and then he added "Also a great spirit may say nonsense", and later on he talked about "members of the TeachersGroup" while he previously had said that the TG is not an association and therefore it cannot have members, which made the prosecutors laugh.

At the end of the first day, only 77 of the 460 indictment points have been
"taken apart" by the defenders and at the end of the second day it was
222. The defenders will continue next week to complete this business.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1752078/
Hard beats to the prosecutors in Tvind case
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=264483
Tvind defenders in counter attack
http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=310714/
Tvind defence draws a picture of persecution
http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1753834:fid=6844/
Defenders: Tvind is just a locality
http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=264646
Lawyer: Tvind does not exist at all
http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=311128/
Defenders with contradictions

The next session is scheduled for Wednesday 9th April

---

Day 3 Wednesday March 12th 2003

On 24 June 1987, the Tvind combine's large fund granted 350.000 crowns for one of the so-called research projects one month before the request for the project had been received.

According to the prosecutor's presentation in the Tvind case, attachments
and reports from board meetings show that the project "International
Distributors", dealing among other things with re-usage of clothes from
the Western world for the poor countries, received the ok from the fund one month before the request had been received on 24 July.

During the third meeting in the comprehensive case, where eight Tvind
leaders are accused for deception and tax fraud, the prosecutor Poul Gade
presented a long range of documents which should demonstrate that the Tvind system under the cover of research activity made millions circulate between thr large fund and other projects controlled by Tvind, to escape taxation.

Great amusement

When the authorities in 1986 strengthened the rules to hit the earlier
Tvind fund in which the members of the TG had payed in up to 80 percent of their salary, Tvind with Mogens Amdi Petersen on the top created a new fund, which to the great amusementof the Tvind teachers got the name "Fund for the support of humanitarian goals, for the promotion of research and for environment protection".

Limitations

Ths name was identical to the wording of the law in which it was enjoined
that money must only be taken out for humanitarian goals, for the promotion of research and for environment protection. Other limitations were that the goal of the fund should  be charitable and at maximum 15 percent of the salary should be paid in.

The fund was created in January 1987, and only a few months later the Tvind people had created another fund, the trade fund IFAS (Institute for
Scientific Research and Applied Sciences) which served as a connecting link between the large fund and other Tvind activities, which, according to the indictment bill, had nothing to do with research.

Research projects

IFAS organized among others the project "Global Reseach", sending a ship with Tvind researchers onboard to Central America to find suitable research project which could be supported. The research leader onboard of the ship "Store Klaus" was the later ex-member Hans la Cour, possibly the most important witness of the prosecution in the case.

The same la Cour described later on how one should identify possible
research projects for IFAS, but none of the projects ever was realized or
supported. According to la Cour, the request form and the documentation
were in English in order to make it more complicated for the Danish tax
authorities.

Project canceled

The ship project "Global Research", originally planned for 5 years, was
canceled already after less than one year. According to la Cour allegedly
because the Tvind management got cold feet, when a furious member of the crew found out that the projects would never receive a single crown, and threated to bail out.

According to the indictment bill, the Tvind fund managed anyway in 1987 to pay 2,4 million crowns, via IFAS, to "Global Research".

The prosecutors think that only in 1987, the Tvind fund payed 5.4 million
crowns, via IFAS, to itself, in contradiction to the goal of the fund.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1715444/

Day 2 Thursday March 6th

On Thursday, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade compared the Tvind management with the management of a Rocker group. As the only defendant, Amid Pertsen did not follow the documents during the presentation of the case.

From the very morning on, the tone was sharp when the public prosecutors in the case of Tvinds humanitarian fund presented their views of the case.

We have tried to get 40 witnesses to speak out. But all of them refused.
This probably only happens in a Rocker environment, that we can see such a strong control of people, public prosecutor Poul Gade said at his
presentation.

He indicated that, according to the prosecutor's opinion, the members of
Tvind's teacher's group are entirely controlled by Tvind's founder Mogens
Amdi Petersen, who, together with seven other managers of Tvind, is accused at the town court for embezzlement and tax fraud.

Poul Gade stated in sharp phrases that he intends to prove at the court
that Tvind's humanitarian fund is not at all a fund in the proper sense.

We can rather talk about that the fund is a scenery which should make the authorities believe that the money from the fund is used for charitable
purpose. But behind the scenery there was quite another plan with the
fund, the prosecutor said, who called the fund more a fake than a fact.

The fund with its full name "Fund for the support of humanitarian goals,
for the support of research and for environment protection" has, according
to the prosecutors, just been established to make sure that about 75
million crowns, paid-up taxfree by 339 Tvind-teachers, could go back to
Tvind itself.

An allegation which was rejected by all eight defendants from Tvind's
management.
 
Four questions

Public prosecutor Pouls Gade statet to the court that the prosecutors would
try to answer four questions:
Who decided about the fund?
How was the money used?
Which information was given to the authorities?
Who had the responsibilty for the usage of the money from the fund?

Three possibilities

According to Gade there are three possibilities for the outcome of the case:
- All eight defendants will be condemned.
- Only the two persons having officially been responsible for the fund -
Poul Jrgensen und Bodil Ross Srensen - will be condemned.
- Nobody will be condemned.

In that connection, Gade asked the defenders to give notice as soon as
possible whether the eight defendants regard their possible responsibility
as a common or as an individual matter. The defenders announced that they wuld do this earliest at a court session in april.

Several times, the prosecutor critisized the defenders for not having given
notice about which parts of the bill of indictment they would reject. A
representative of the defenders, Jan Erik Kornerup Jensen, rejected these
critics and said, the defenders would present their rejections together and
at once.

Request for payment rejected

Also yesterday, the court took position at the defender's request for a
payment of 18.500 crowns per court day and per defender, plus reimbursement of expenses.

The court rejected the request of the defenders and fixed the payment at
about 16.400 crowns per defender and day, plus reimbursement of expenses.
But it openend the possibility to increase this amount, if the defenders
could prove a justification for additional usage of time.

The main person in the case, Mogens Amdi Petersen, showed a nearly
demonstrative lack of interest for the case.

While the other defendants sat and looked at the documents of the case as
they were shown on the 20 flat screens in the court room, Amdi had not even switched on his screen.

He sat and stared and in even intervals was sighing and heavily yawning.
After the session, he stated to the press:

According to the advice of my defensor, I have nothing to say - not before the case will be closed. This advice I have received.

At the next session in the case - which will take place next week - the
prosecution authority will start to go through the first eight of totally
eleven projects, about which the prosecutors believe that they have
received undue support from Tvinds humanitarian fund.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1705428:fid=6844/

The case against Amdi Petersen and the other 7 leaders of the Tvind empire is a very normal case about economical criminality, where it should be decided if the defendants have taken money which they should not have
taken. But in a single point it is different from most of them: No teacher
from Tvind wanted to contribute to the clearing up. This was said by one of the prosecutors, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade, when he on Thurday presented the case in the building of the Western Country Court in rhus.

After consultation with my defender, I have nothing to say before the case is completed, said Amdi Petersen

Among the defendants, it is only the leader, Amdi Petersen, and the
speaker, Poul Jrgensen, who wanted to talk to the police, the prosecutor
said.

The police has spoken with 40 mebers of the teacher's group, but nobody of them wanted to speak out. This is very unnormal. I don't believe one would experience this in a Rotary club. This would only happen in a gang of Rockers, Poul Gade said.

The breakthrough came when the police had access to the computers which were confiscated in april 2001 at eight different Tvind locations. By that, the police was able for the first time to describe the complete
organisation of Tvind, Poul Gade said, who told about a combine equaly
large as the bigest multinational combines.

In this carefully planned organisation, Tvinds humanitarian fund is only
one of many sources of income for the common cashbox of the teacher's
group, according to the prosecution authority.

Pure fiction

This means that the money which is going into Tvind's humanitarian fund,
is regarded as an income source for the cashbox of the teacher's group.
This information has not been given to the fund auhorities or tax
auhtorities, Poul Gade said, who regards the fund as a pure fiction.

This is not a fund. This is an outward show with something behind, the
prosecutor said, and only on that background one could talk about tax
fraud. "The core in the case is, whether the court will follow the
prosecutors and say yes, so it was, or if they will say, yes, that is
punishable, but only for those who had the formal responsibility, these are
Poul Jrgensen and Bodil Ross Srensen, or if they find there is nothing
punishable, Pould Gade said.

Not much to say

The 12 defenders will first reply to the prosecutor's presentation in court
sessions in april. And after the two day's sessions in rhus, Mogens Amdi
Petersen has not much to say either:

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=259171

The Tvind case will cost about 15 million Danish crowns only for the 12 defenders for the 8 defendants. Every defender can look forward to about 1,2 millions.

The court in Ringkbing decided today the payment to be 15.000 crows per lawyer per day, added value tax included. 80 court days are expected which results in a total of 14,4 millions. In addition they will be payed for
hotel and staying and possible extra use of time because the case is so
comprehensive. The payment per hour is 1100 crowns, half if it for
traveling hours. This is for the lawyers only.

But there is also a judge, another judge, two courtmen, another courtman
and three prosecutors, all who travel to rhus for those days when the case is treated.

The case concerns tax fraud, embezzlement, abuse of trust for until 57
millions.

/ritzau/  http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260520/

---

Day 1 March 5th:   Today it was the serious start of the case which is expected to last many months. Initially, prosecutors and defenders were fighting each other, because the defenders each request 18.500 kroner per day. The judge has not yet decided about that. They also were fighting about the schedule of the case. Though the prosecutors thought that the case could be ready until the end of the year 2003 in 45 days, the lawyers had little room in their time schedule for that case, so the last meeting in court will be on 6 october 2004.

The interest of the public was moderate.

Mogens Amdi Petersen was not charming as earlier and not willing to talk to the press and to the banana workers. He and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen even switched off the computer screens they had in front of them.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1715444/

Day 2 Thursday March 6th

On Thursday, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade compared the Tvind management with the management of a Rocker group. As the only defendant, Amid Pertsen did not follow the documents during the presentation of the case.

From the very morning on, the tone was sharp when the public prosecutors in the case of Tvinds humanitarian fund presented their views of the case.

We have tried to get 40 witnesses to speak out. But all of them refused.
This probably only happens in a Rocker environment, that we can see such a strong control of people, public prosecutor Poul Gade said at his
presentation.

He indicated that, according to the prosecutor's opinion, the members of
Tvind's teacher's group are entirely controlled by Tvind's founder Mogens
Amdi Petersen, who, together with seven other managers of Tvind, is accused at the town court for embezzlement and tax fraud.

Poul Gade stated in sharp phrases that he intends to prove at the court
that Tvind's humanitarian fund is not at all a fund in the proper sense.

We can rather talk about that the fund is a scenery which should make the authorities believe that the money from the fund is used for charitable
purpose. But behind the scenery there was quite another plan with the
fund, the prosecutor said, who called the fund more a fake than a fact.

The fund with its full name "Fund for the support of humanitarian goals,
for the support of research and for environment protection" has, according
to the prosecutors, just been established to make sure that about 75
million crowns, paid-up taxfree by 339 Tvind-teachers, could go back to
Tvind itself.

An allegation which was rejected by all eight defendants from Tvind's
management.
 
Four questions

Public prosecutor Pouls Gade statet to the court that the prosecutors would
try to answer four questions:
Who decided about the fund?
How was the money used?
Which information was given to the authorities?
Who had the responsibilty for the usage of the money from the fund?

Three possibilities

According to Gade there are three possibilities for the outcome of the case:
- All eight defendants will be condemned.
- Only the two persons having officially been responsible for the fund -
Poul Jrgensen und Bodil Ross Srensen - will be condemned.
- Nobody will be condemned.

In that connection, Gade asked the defenders to give notice as soon as
possible whether the eight defendants regard their possible responsibility
as a common or as an individual matter. The defenders announced that they wuld do this earliest at a court session in april.

Several times, the prosecutor critisized the defenders for not having given
notice about which parts of the bill of indictment they would reject. A
representative of the defenders, Jan Erik Kornerup Jensen, rejected these
critics and said, the defenders would present their rejections together and
at once.

Request for payment rejected

Also yesterday, the court took position at the defender's request for a
payment of 18.500 crowns per court day and per defender, plus reimbursement of expenses.

The court rejected the request of the defenders and fixed the payment at
about 16.400 crowns per defender and day, plus reimbursement of expenses.
But it openend the possibility to increase this amount, if the defenders
could prove a justification for additional usage of time.

The main person in the case, Mogens Amdi Petersen, showed a nearly
demonstrative lack of interest for the case.

While the other defendants sat and looked at the documents of the case as
they were shown on the 20 flat screens in the court room, Amdi had not even switched on his screen.

He sat and stared and in even intervals was sighing and heavily yawning.
After the session, he stated to the press:

According to the advice of my defensor, I have nothing to say - not before the case will be closed. This advice I have received.

At the next session in the case - which will take place next week - the
prosecution authority will start to go through the first eight of totally
eleven projects, about which the prosecutors believe that they have
received undue support from Tvinds humanitarian fund.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1705428:fid=6844/

The case against Amdi Petersen and the other 7 leaders of the Tvind empire is a very normal case about economical criminality, where it should be decided if the defendants have taken money which they should not have
taken. But in a single point it is different from most of them: No teacher
from Tvind wanted to contribute to the clearing up. This was said by one of the prosecutors, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade, when he on Thurday presented the case in the building of the Western Country Court in rhus.

After consultation with my defender, I have nothing to say before the case is completed, said Amdi Petersen

Among the defendants, it is only the leader, Amdi Petersen, and the
speaker, Poul Jrgensen, who wanted to talk to the police, the prosecutor
said.

The police has spoken with 40 mebers of the teacher's group, but nobody of them wanted to speak out. This is very unnormal. I don't believe one would experience this in a Rotary club. This would only happen in a gang of Rockers, Poul Gade said.

The breakthrough came when the police had access to the computers which were confiscated in april 2001 at eight different Tvind locations. By that, the police was able for the first time to describe the complete
organisation of Tvind, Poul Gade said, who told about a combine equaly
large as the bigest multinational combines.

In this carefully planned organisation, Tvinds humanitarian fund is only
one of many sources of income for the common cashbox of the teacher's
group, according to the prosecution authority.

Pure fiction

This means that the money which is going into Tvind's humanitarian fund,
is regarded as an income source for the cashbox of the teacher's group.
This information has not been given to the fund auhorities or tax
auhtorities, Poul Gade said, who regards the fund as a pure fiction.

This is not a fund. This is an outward show with something behind, the
prosecutor said, and only on that background one could talk about tax
fraud. "The core in the case is, whether the court will follow the
prosecutors and say yes, so it was, or if they will say, yes, that is
punishable, but only for those who had the formal responsibility, these are
Poul Jrgensen and Bodil Ross Srensen, or if they find there is nothing
punishable, Pould Gade said.

Not much to say

The 12 defenders will first reply to the prosecutor's presentation in court
sessions in april. And after the two day's sessions in rhus, Mogens Amdi
Petersen has not much to say either:

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=259171

The Tvind case will cost about 15 million Danish crowns only for the 12 defenders for the 8 defendants. Every defender can look forward to about 1,2 millions.

The court in Ringkbing decided today the payment to be 15.000 crows per lawyer per day, added value tax included. 80 court days are expected which results in a total of 14,4 millions. In addition they will be payed for
hotel and staying and possible extra use of time because the case is so
comprehensive. The payment per hour is 1100 crowns, half if it for
traveling hours. This is for the lawyers only.

But there is also a judge, another judge, two courtmen, another courtman
and three prosecutors, all who travel to rhus for those days when the case is treated.

The case concerns tax fraud, embezzlement, abuse of trust for until 57
millions.

/ritzau/  http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260520/

---

Day 1 March 5th:   Today it was the serious start of the case which is expected to last many months. Initially, prosecutors and defenders were fighting each other, because the defenders each request 18.500 kroner per day. The judge has not yet decided about that. They also were fighting about the schedule of the case. Though the prosecutors thought that the case could be ready until the end of the year 2003 in 45 days, the lawyers had little room in their time schedule for that case, so the last meeting in court will be on 6 october 2004.

The interest of the public was moderate.

Mogens Amdi Petersen was not charming as earlier and not willing to talk to the press and to the banana workers. He and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen even switched off the computer screens they had in front of them.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=1705428:fid=6844/

The case against Amdi Petersen and the other 7 leaders of the Tvind empire is a very normal case about economical criminality, where it should be decided if the defendants have taken money which they should not have
taken. But in a single point it is different from most of them: No teacher
from Tvind wanted to contribute to the clearing up. This was said by one of the prosecutors, vice public prosecutor Poul Gade, when he on Thurday presented the case in the building of the Western Country Court in rhus.

After consultation with my defender, I have nothing to say before the case is completed, said Amdi Petersen

Among the defendants, it is only the leader, Amdi Petersen, and the
speaker, Poul Jrgensen, who wanted to talk to the police, the prosecutor
said.

The police has spoken with 40 mebers of the teacher's group, but nobody of them wanted to speak out. This is very unnormal. I don't believe one would experience this in a Rotary club. This would only happen in a gang of Rockers, Poul Gade said.

The breakthrough came when the police had access to the computers which were confiscated in april 2001 at eight different Tvind locations. By that, the police was able for the first time to describe the complete
organisation of Tvind, Poul Gade said, who told about a combine equaly
large as the bigest multinational combines.

In this carefully planned organisation, Tvinds humanitarian fund is only
one of many sources of income for the common cashbox of the teacher's
group, according to the prosecution authority.

Pure fiction

This means that the money which is going into Tvind's humanitarian fund,
is regarded as an income source for the cashbox of the teacher's group.
This information has not been given to the fund auhorities or tax
auhtorities, Poul Gade said, who regards the fund as a pure fiction.

This is not a fund. This is an outward show with something behind, the
prosecutor said, and only on that background one could talk about tax
fraud. "The core in the case is, whether the court will follow the
prosecutors and say yes, so it was, or if they will say, yes, that is
punishable, but only for those who had the formal responsibility, these are
Poul Jrgensen and Bodil Ross Srensen, or if they find there is nothing
punishable, Pould Gade said.

Not much to say

The 12 defenders will first reply to the prosecutor's presentation in court
sessions in april. And after the two day's sessions in rhus, Mogens Amdi
Petersen has not much to say either:

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=259171

The Tvind case will cost about 15 million Danish crowns only for the 12 defenders for the 8 defendants. Every defender can look forward to about 1,2 millions.

The court in Ringkbing decided today the payment to be 15.000 crows per lawyer per day, added value tax included. 80 court days are expected which results in a total of 14,4 millions. In addition they will be payed for
hotel and staying and possible extra use of time because the case is so
comprehensive. The payment per hour is 1100 crowns, half if it for
traveling hours. This is for the lawyers only.

But there is also a judge, another judge, two courtmen, another courtman
and three prosecutors, all who travel to rhus for those days when the case is treated.

The case concerns tax fraud, embezzlement, abuse of trust for until 57
millions.

/ritzau/  http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260520/

---

Day 1 March 5th:   Today it was the serious start of the case which is expected to last many months. Initially, prosecutors and defenders were fighting each other, because the defenders each request 18.500 kroner per day. The judge has not yet decided about that. They also were fighting about the schedule of the case. Though the prosecutors thought that the case could be ready until the end of the year 2003 in 45 days, the lawyers had little room in their time schedule for that case, so the last meeting in court will be on 6 october 2004.

The interest of the public was moderate.

Mogens Amdi Petersen was not charming as earlier and not willing to talk to the press and to the banana workers. He and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen even switched off the computer screens they had in front of them.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?PageID=259171

The Tvind case will cost about 15 million Danish crowns only for the 12 defenders for the 8 defendants. Every defender can look forward to about 1,2 millions.

The court in Ringkbing decided today the payment to be 15.000 crows per lawyer per day, added value tax included. 80 court days are expected which results in a total of 14,4 millions. In addition they will be payed for
hotel and staying and possible extra use of time because the case is so
comprehensive. The payment per hour is 1100 crowns, half if it for
traveling hours. This is for the lawyers only.

But there is also a judge, another judge, two courtmen, another courtman
and three prosecutors, all who travel to rhus for those days when the case is treated.

The case concerns tax fraud, embezzlement, abuse of trust for until 57
millions.

/ritzau/  http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260520/

---

Day 1 March 5th:   Today it was the serious start of the case which is expected to last many months. Initially, prosecutors and defenders were fighting each other, because the defenders each request 18.500 kroner per day. The judge has not yet decided about that. They also were fighting about the schedule of the case. Though the prosecutors thought that the case could be ready until the end of the year 2003 in 45 days, the lawyers had little room in their time schedule for that case, so the last meeting in court will be on 6 october 2004.

The interest of the public was moderate.

Mogens Amdi Petersen was not charming as earlier and not willing to talk to the press and to the banana workers. He and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen even switched off the computer screens they had in front of them.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

/ritzau/  http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260520/

---

Day 1 March 5th:   Today it was the serious start of the case which is expected to last many months. Initially, prosecutors and defenders were fighting each other, because the defenders each request 18.500 kroner per day. The judge has not yet decided about that. They also were fighting about the schedule of the case. Though the prosecutors thought that the case could be ready until the end of the year 2003 in 45 days, the lawyers had little room in their time schedule for that case, so the last meeting in court will be on 6 october 2004.

The interest of the public was moderate.

Mogens Amdi Petersen was not charming as earlier and not willing to talk to the press and to the banana workers. He and his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen even switched off the computer screens they had in front of them.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

http://www.berlingske.dk/artikel:aid=260342/

The eight members of the Teachers Group, being charged with fraud and embezzlement in Denmark, wednesday March 5th,  pleaded not guilty on the first day of the court case in Ringkobing.    The eight, including Tvind-founder Amdi Petersen, are being charged with fraud and embezzlement for 25 million euro's (25 million dollars). For some of the accused the charges are about smaller accounts than 25 million euro's.

Copyright 2002, 2003 Tvind Alert, All Rights Reserved

 Permission is granted to reproduce the materials posted here provided that they are credited as "Source: Tvind Alert (http://www.tvindalert.com)"