Tvind Alert

Tvind in the USA

Tvind assets:

IICD Massachussets, IICD Michigan, Campus California TG

Clothes recycling

Planet Aid, U'SAgain, Gaia, Garson & Shaw Inc

Thrift shops, street collections, volunteer recruitment

Real estate companies

Luxury properties in Florida

Offices on Wall Street

California, Sept 2004 - bins fund Siskiyou nonprofit

September 2004 - article in the

This article questions the real nature of Gaia clothes collections in northern California, that turn out to be linked to Campus California TG: "Those big green clothing recycling bins that recently popped up around Sonoma may not be as straightforward as they look. One thing is certain - they don't help local causes and they're raising more than a few eyebrows at Sonoma charities that also collect clothes...."

May 2004 - Chicago Tribune investigates Tvind in the USA

May 2004 - in a three part series on Gaia, Tvind and Amdi Petersen, the Chicago Tribune, reports allegations that Tvind has morphed "from a countercultural teachers collective into a criminal enterprise," that intertwines charities with for-profit business ventures.

IICD Watch website. A critical website geared towards people thinking about joining a program at any of the Teachers Group's three schools in the USA, providing a detailed analysis of the teaching, philosophy, finances and on the ground development work offered. Includes useful alternatives to IICD programmes.
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Amdi Petersen in jail in Los Angeles

Amdi Petersen, the alleged cult leader of Tvind wanted by Danish police on serious fraud charges, was arrested by the FBI on Feb 17th, 2002. He had been on the run for 22 years.

Newspaper reports

Chicago Reader Hot Type: Truth in Advertising 31st October 2003

A small ad that's been running in the Reader in recent weeks has a message for anyone with a big heart, a venturesome spirit, and an underdeveloped sense of skepticism. "Volunteer in Africa. . . . Work with HIV/AIDS orphans/outreach," it says. "No experience necessary." There's mention of an upcoming informational meeting, and the curious are provided with a Massachusetts phone number, an e-mail address, and a URL. Intrigued, I e-mailed Humana People to People, the organization that placed the ad, asking what I could expect if I applied.

Beneath the yellow awning of Planet Aid's nonprofit store in Harvard Square, the idea on display is as attractive as the mannequins: The $7 you pay for someone's castaway corduroys might help fund an aid project in Zambia or Angola. That outgrown overcoat you donate could end up sheltering
a refugee from the rain.

Wisconsin State Journal Recycling Group Meets Resistance 7th April, 2002

Madison, Wisconsin: city recycling officer George Dreckmann declines to assist Gaia Movement Living Earth Green World Action USA after a complaint about Tvind from environmental group Sustain Dane.

Miami New Times

Wacky Danish cult leader Mogens Amdi Petersen was a guest on Fisher Island until recently; now he's staying with the State of California

Los Angeles Times

The reclusive founder of a worldwide network of charities was ordered held without bond Friday on an extradition warrant from Denmark, where he has been charged with looting millions of dollars from one of his nonprofit organizations.

Jyllands-Posten Mogens Amdi Petersen located in Miami 28th October 2001

Mogens Amdi Petersen, leader of the Danish Tvind organisation, is hiding on a private tropical island, while earnings from companies in The Third World and Tvind-teacher salaries keep pouring into his coffers. Petersen... who disappeared 22 years ago, is living a life of luxury on the fashionable private tropical island of Fisher Island off Miami, USA.

Boston Magazine: Mission Control, by Jay Cheshes October 2000

In 1970, a group of Danish hippies set out on a mission to save the world. Thirty years later, some of the young acolytes they recruited claim the group has become a cult, amassing riches in the hundreds of millions of dollars under the direction of an elusive and mysterious founder. Now, with recruiting efforts reaching into the United States, ex-members say the mission is no longer to save the world but to conquer it. North American headquarters? Massachusetts.

Colleges in The USA

Clothes Recycling Companies

See: Tvind companies

See the map of US clothes recycling companies

Planet Aid Inc (Massachusetts)

Planet Aid is believed to have a number of local, state-registered companies and not-for-profits, for example: Planet Aid Philadelphia Affiliate of UFF Finland, registered 1998

Where Planet Aid is collecting

U'SAgain (Atlanta)

Commercial clothes collection company with environmental recycling slant, collecting in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, St Louis, Chicago and Seattle. Run by the Teachers' Group; clothes are sold to Garson & Shaw, another TG company.

Gaia Living Earth Movement Green World Action (USA) (Chicago)

Charity clothes collection 'for the environment' along similar lines as Green World Recycling in the UK, and likewise linked to the same 'Gaia' Trust in Switzerland - no known environmental projects and as of December 2000, nothing given to charity outside the Teachers Group.

Garson & Shaw Inc (Atlanta)

Selling clothes collected by Planet Aid, U'SAgain and Gaia in: Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington DC, Cleveland, Michigan, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, New Jersey, Minneapolis, N Carolina, St Louis.

A correspondent writes: The thing you don't write about Garson and Shaw is the most upsetting bit. They get the clothes cheap from Humana, then they go to the clients of Humana and sell them at the normal price. Even though for example Planet Aid in the states could sell its clothes directly it chooses to make less money for the charity and instead take this money which they would have to account for being a registered charity and give it to Garson and Shaw which is a private company. In this way they can take 100 % of the profit they could have made to help people and put it directly into teachers group coffers. They actually run in direct competition undercutting the charities sales network

Property management companies:

AS Properties

Owns the IICD and CCTG college properties

J F Parson Tampa Florida

Bought luxury apartment on Fisher Island, 1991

Luxury properties

5302 and 5352 Fisher Island Drive, Fisher Island, Miami

Mogens Amdi Petersen located in Miami (Jyllands-Posten, Denmark, Sunday 28th October 2001)

The Man from Miami (Jyllands-Posten, Denmark, Sunday 28th October 2001)

6301 Collins Avenue and 6767 Collins Avenue, Miami

According to the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, Tvind owns 12 expensive penthouse apartments here. Reclusive leader Mogens Amdi Petersen is believed to use these addresses from time to time.

Ekstra Bladet, December 1998 (under construction)

Stories

See: the stories

under construction

American cult watchdogs

American Family Foundation (AFF)
P.O. Box 2265
Bonita Springs, FL 33959
(212) 533-5420
(212) 249-7693 Message Center

International Cult Education Project (ICEP)
P.O. Box 1232 Gracie Station
New York, NY 10028
(212) 439-1550

reFOCUS
P.O. Box 2180
Flagler Beach, FL 32136
(904) 439-7541 P.O. Box 4901
Grand Junction, CO 81502
(303) 241-7694
carol2180@aol.com
http://www.nwrain.net/~refocus/ reFOCUS - a network of referral and support for former members of closed, intense groups, relationships or cults. We offer referrals to: other former members of the same group; other former members in your local area; support groups; therapists with knowledge of cult issues; books, videos and information on thought reform and recovery issues; recovery workshops; supportive organizations; and internet support. We have a questionaire for former members to fill out so that we can maintain our referral and support lists. The questionnaire is available at the above address.

Project Outreach - a cooperative effort of AFF (American Family Foundation) a research and educational organization concerned about psychological abuse in cults and other groups) and reFOCUS (recovering FOrmer CUltists Support Network) seeks to serve the needs of individuals who have left such groups by: 1) identifying such individuals; 2) publicizing potential resources to help in recovery from psychologically abusive experiences; 3) send (free) copies for 1 year of AFF News, which includes articles on recovery, information about recovery workshops, and lists of available books/resources; and 4) helping to establish support groups in areas in which ex-members would like but do not yet have such groups. Contact Carol Giambalvo at Carol2180@aol.com.

Task Force on Cults and Missionaries
Greater Miami Jewish Federation
4200 Biscayne Blvd.
Miami, FL 33137
(305) 576-4000