The Trayton Group

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Sofa's computers, and the 'Tvind programme' in Shanghai....and $1m a year for Tvind

September 2004 - The Trayton Group is a Tvind furniture, timber trading and computer company based in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, run by 37-year old Danish expatriate Simon Lichtenberg.      According to new information in a Danish newspaper, published September 2004,  Trayton donates around 635,000 a year ($1.1m - a third of its profit) to the Teachers Group (TG), the 'common economy',  implicated in many shady financial transactions.

Lichtenberg is one of the longest-established members of the Tvind Teachers Group and is widely regarded as a possible successor to Teachers Group guru Amdi Petersen (currently on trial over $25m fraud charges).

This month, in an interview with the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Lichtenberg admitted a close link between Trayton and the TG, after previously denying any connection.    He gave details which corroborate his identification by the media and this web site as a senior Tvind ideologue.

Note:  In mid-2004 Lichtenberg twice tried to close down this web site by threatening legal action, apparently claiming there was no connection between himself or Trayton and Tvind: he demanded that every single reference to himself and Trayton should be deleted and hired lawyers to enforce this.   Tvind Alert could not comply.     Instead, the Tvind Alert site closed in the UK and was relocated to Denmark where Internet law is different, and we continue to publish the facts. 

A brief summary of the interview in Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten is available here:

          Simon Lichtenberg Admits Chinese Trayton Makes Money for TG    (Sept 2004)

Who is Simon Lichtenberg?

Lichtenberg's association with Tvind began early - his parents joined the Teachers Group when he was just seven years old.   The powerful influence of the Teachers Group shines through:  Lichtenberg went on sign up with the TG himself and worked for it in Europe, Africa and Asia.

His sister Marie Lichtenberg is also in the Teachers Group and working for Tvind-Humana in Africa; she is currently listed as a Humana manager working on ADPP's programme of teacher training colleges in Mozambique, 'Teachers of the Future'. (Her email address is mariel@humana.org).  

Lichtenberg himself is very senior in the TG.     Information sent to Tvind Alert suggests that he was one of a number of key TG members despatched around the world in the early 1990s as part of a plan to expand Tvind's business empire and tasked with exploiting the growing Chinese market on behalf of Tvind.     The Trayton Group, of which Lichtenberg is general manager, was started in the mid 1990s.      Despite his protestations that he is solely a businessman, Lichtenberg is now widely believed to be a possible successor to Amdi Petersen as the man at the head of the multi-million dollar TG.

Trayton Holdings

Further links with the secretive Teachers Group are indicated by the ownership of the Trayton group of companies.   Although Lichtenberg told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten that he alone is the 'owner' of Trayton, he also admits (apparently at one and the same time) that it is owned by a company registered in the tax-haven Isle of Man, Trayton Holdings Ltd.      The existence of Trayton Holdings Ltd was first disclosed by another Danish newspaper some years ago.

The significant thing about Trayton Holdings was that the other signatory trustees were long-established members of the Teachers Group and two of Tvind's most senior financial controllers:     Christie Pipps (aka Kirsten Fuglsbjerg) - one of the leading TG members currently on trial accused of fraud -  and Tvind 'chief accountant' Neils Peter Holst.      From its inception, Trayton was always a 'Tvind' company.

Berlingske Tidende's disclosure of Trayton and its connection to Tvind can be read here:

          Danish Government supports Tvind venture (26 March 2000) by Christian Jensen and Michael Bjerre

          The Chinese Mask of Tvind (26 March 2000) by Christian Jensen and Michael Bjerre

What Trayton does in China

Trayton produces about 20,000 sofas a month, imports timber from West Africa, and runs 18 'Bo Concept' stores offering Scandinavian design in China.   With 1,500 employees and a turnover of around 50m, it is one of the best-performing companies in the new Chinese economy - perhaps this is why Lichtenberg was so keen to suppress information on the Internet about its close links to the controversial, supposedly humanitarian but allegedly corrupt Tvind organisation.

In 2000, Trayton applied for Danish government funding without disclosing its connection to Tvind, at a time when the government was trying to prevent further public funding of any Tvind schools.     When Berlingske Tidende disclosed the link, the funding was hurriedly withdrawn.

One of its more intriguing, blatantly 'Tvind' products for far eastern customers is its range of computers aimed at the 'educational' market.  These hideous-looking red and white computers for schools and colleges come pre-loaded with Tvind educational software based on Tvind's supposed teaching system (a regime used in its own colleges in Europe and the USA, about which we have received a number of adverse comments).

Information about all this is on Trayton's own website at www.trayton.com.

Please email any comments or information to Tvind Alert