The Amdi Petersen fraud trial - Humana People-to-People Alert

  Teachers Group trial  

2007 - The fraud trial against Teachers Group leader resumes in Denmark

7th November 2007: The fraud trial aganst the Teachers Group has resumed in Denmark. But when the court reconvened on November 7th in Aarhus to hear new charges of embezzlement and tax fraud, only one Teachers Group leader was present - Poul Joergensen. All the rest have gone on the run.

Joergensen was known as Amdi Petersens 'right hand man' over many years, and when police announced charges late last year he was swiftly caught in Denmark. But the five other defendants, Petersen himself, his mistress Kirsten Larsen, Marlene Gunst, Kirsten Fuglsbjerg [aka 'Christie Pipps'], and Sten Byrner are believed to be hiding out in the Teachers Group's Humana headquarters building in Zimbabwe, under the protection of Robert Mugabe, or at the new headquarters in Mexico.

All six were accused of illegally transferring millions of Danish kroner from a Teachers Group tax-free fund, the Humanitarian Foundation, through fake companies and environmental front organisations back to the Teachers Group itself, where it could have been used for business and property transactions. A lower court trial, that lasted for more than three years, ended in 2006 with a 'not guilty' verdict, but the Danish state decided to appeal the decision. However, by the time they filed legal papers 12 days later, all but one of the defendants had fled and cannot be tried in their absence.

The new trial against Joergensen is expected to last until September 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PoulJoergensen

  The accused  

All the accused are members of the Tvind Teachers Group that controls the Tvind-Humana financial empire:

Mogens Amdi Petersen

The leader >>>

 

Kirsten Larsen

The right-hand woman >>>

 

Poul Jørgensen

The lawyer >>>

 

Marlene Gunst

The accountant >>>

 

Kirsten Fuglsbjerg

The financial wizard >>>

 

Sten Byrner

The bookseller>>>

 

Bodil Ross Sørensen

    ACQUITTED

 

Ruth Sejerø-Olsen

    ACQUITTED

 

Who's Who in Tvind

  The sawmill in Borneo  

Two Paris-based 'environmental charities', La Societe Verte and L'Energie Eternelle, were also invented by the TG, police say. Far from supporting Green projects in Malaysia and Tahiti, some of the money was used to buy a sawmill. More than £3 million was passed through to TG companies in Miami and London, and used to buy property.

 The verdict - what the press said  

Legally not guilty, morally guilty

The Danish press, like the public, was taken by surprise by the verdict in the Tvind case. From day one, after the court found Amdi Petersen and the other Tvind leaders not guilty of tax fraud and embezlement, all the national Danish newspapers had comments.

The trend in all of them was: We must accept the Court's verdict of not guilty in terms of law. But it doesn't mean, that Amdi and his companions in the TG leadership are morally not guilty. They have lied about their aims, broken down young people, made tax-speculation and so on and so on.

The newspapers all concluded that in spite of the overwhelming mass of evidence - hundreds of thousands of secret documents from Tvind 's computers - the judge chose to believe the verbal explanations given in court by the eight TG leaders.

Here are some examples. Berlingske Tidende: "Amdi Petersen, in particular, is guilty of a quite different crime, which has nothing to do with the law. He has rudely laid down and betrayed the people and the ideas, which Tvind allegedly should defend".

The paper adds :    "The Tvind empire doesn't have many friends in Denmark nowadays. The company stands for a peculiar variety of socialism and collectivism, which has shown many disgusting results. No wonder, that many, many people and politicians have turned their back on Tvind".

Information: "Power and repression have been the means to reach the humanitarian goal, which Tvind travels around the world with. As with other sects, totalitarian and revolutionary movements, one can ask oneself what kind of psychological mechanisms and emptiness moves people to give up their lives and follow a demagogic leader, who can persuade them, that the end justifies the means. But this is not a crime and can't lead to conviction" (Information)

Politiken:    "It is not" (with the verdict) "said that the Tvind leadership is not guilty in the moral sense of the word. Group-pressure, indoctrination, manipulation and every other kind of totalitarian trick were in the 1970s and 1980s the dark side of the movement's growth and popularity. Amdi Petersen and his companions luxury life on Bahamas is no less provocative, even if it is not - according to law - misuse of the Fund money. The downfall in relation to the movements Danish-Maoist ideals is no less serious as a result of the Court's judgements on their legal tricks".

Ekstra Bladet:    "Mogens Amdi Petersen was not the spider in the middle of Tvind's widespread web. Neither his lackey Poul Jørgensen nor his many ladies-in-waiting pulled so hard on the threads that they are to be convicted for embezzlement or tax-fraud. That's the judgement of judge Steen Løvbjerg Nielsen and his lay assessors in the Court. ... Damn it! That's what we think.'

 The fraud trial 2003-6 

  The background  

Humana founder Amdi Petersen and seven other senior members of the Tvind Teachers Group were charged in 2003 with fraud, breach of trust and tax evasion in connection with an allegedly corrupt financial trust, the Humanitarian Fund, and supposedly fake charities.

They appeared in a special computer-equipped court in Aarhus, Denmark over 165 days between 2003-2006. It was Denmark's biggest and most expensive fraud trial in living memory.

  The prosecution  

The charges in this case relate to one Danish Tvind charitable trust - the Humanitarian Fund, founded in 1987.

Tvind supporters donated £8.5m to this fund, believing the money would be spent on 'Humanitarian Purposes the Promotion of Research, and the Protection of the Natural Environment'.

In fact, police allege, the money was passed by the TG 'inner circle' through brass-plate companies, offshore funds and fake charities to a central Teachers Group treasury' and used to buy property and investments. In addition, between 1987-2000 the Humanitarian Fund earned the TG illegal tax credits of £9.2 million.

Among the fake charities police allege were used to launder cash are a supposed 'nature protection project' in Brazil which is actually a commercial forestry plantation, a sawmill in Borneo listed as a sustainable forest, and a bogus scientific research institute.

The 2001 Danish police report (summarised here) outlines the case against the Teachers Group leaders.

  The defence  

The Teachers Group and their supporters simply maintain they have done nothing wrong, and claim the trial is politically motivated. A Teachers Group web site outlining the defence case and attempting to justify the Humanitarian Foundation has been posted on the Internet.

  The verdict  

On 31st August, 2006, to widespread amazement in Denmark, the District Judge at the Aarhus local court pronounced seven of the eight accused 'not guilty'. Only Sten Byrner, who had already admitted several minor frauds, was found guilty and given a suspended sentence.

What the Danish press said >>>>

  The appeal  

But the story is not over yet. Within days the Danish public prosecutor announced an appeal to a higher court in six of the eight cases. Bodil Ross Sørensen and Ruth Sejerø-Olsen remain cleared. According to information received by Humana Alert, the focus in the appeal will be on the Teachers Group's alleged money-making plantations in Brazil and Malaysia. Watch this space.

Petersen, Larsen and their dog Boris are thought to be living in San Juan de las Pulgas, Mexico, close to the huge new complex the Humana organisation is building on the Pacific coast. Mexico does not have an extradition agreement with Denmark. Petersen has also been seen in Zimbabwe, where Humana has its existing headquarters.

The five are thought to have 'disappeared' in a bid to sabotage plans for a resumed trial. In September, the Danish public prosecutor announced he would appeal against 'not guilty' verdicts earlier handed down by a district court in Aarhus, bringing new cases against six of the original eight defendants. Under Danish law, appeal papers have to be delivered personally to the defendants within two weeks.

Within days, every one of the defendants had vanished. Petersen, Larsen, Gunst, Fuglsbjerg and Byrner are thought to have fled abroad. The sixth defendant, Poul Joergensen, went 'underground' in Denmark, but was found by police three weeks later and served with the papers.

According to our sources, Danish police have even travelled to San Juan de las Pulgas to try to locate Petersen, but without success. Danish police have now issued a request to

Latest!

AMDI SEEN IN SINGAPORE

Sunday 3rd Dec 2006: The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reports that Amdi Petersen and Kirsten Larsen were spotted in Singapore on Friday. They were seen by the Danish marathon runner Hans Mygind Andersen, in Singapore for a competition. They were looking at the window display of an expensive silversmith at the time, but hailed a taxi and disappeared. Danish police have said they will contact the police in Singapore.

police forces across the world to detain Petersen or any of the other accused if they know their whereabouts, to allow Danish officials to serve the court papers on them.

The attempt at sabotage appears to have failed. In November a Danish court ruled that the appeal will go ahead anyway, since the prosecutor has done everything possible to find the six TG leaders before the legal deadline and because it was obvious that the six defendants were deliberately hiding.

  THE HUNT FOR AMDI PETERSEN RESUMES  

Tvind accused vanish abroad

 

 

 

November 2006: Five of the six defendants in the Teachers Group fraud trial have fled Denmark - possibly to Mexico - in an attempt to avoid a new prosecution. Tvind leader Amdi Petersen, his girlfriend Kirsten Larsen and three others disappeared shortly after learning that they would face a new trial for humanitarian charity fraud and tax evasion.

  The police allegations    

Among the many allegations in the police file:

  The forest in Brazil  

According to Tvind, more than £1 million was used to create a 'unique nature protection project' in Brazil, including 'biomass power station'. In fact, police say Fazenda Jatoba is a commercial timber and food plantation.

  The 'Research Institute'  

Tvind donated money to a research institute, the Institute for Scientific Research and Applied Sciences (IFAS) and said the cash was used to make TV programmes on the environment. However, police say Tvind created the IFAS itself, and most of it the money was creamed off to Tvind property companies in the USA and Cayman Islands.