Dagblad 1

 

from Rotterdam Dagblad, Holland, 18th February 1995

by Jolande van der Graaf

The charitable organisation Humana that collects clothes for Africa in over 100 Dutch cities and villages, is selling clothes to companies owned by the Danish Tvind-group.   Humana is related to Tvind that is suspected of fraud and known as a sect in its own country.

MPs P van Heemst (Social Democrats) and E van Middelkoop (GPV Party) suspect the organisation of making big money by selling the collected clothes to its own companies in Amsterdam, Great Britain and on the Netherlands-Antilles (Caribbean).   "Again this proves that Humana does not bother to hide its evil side," van Middelkoop states.

Director P Jensen of Humana Holland confirms that clothes are being sold to the Amsterdam company, but says he does not know that this enterprise, as well as the others, is in the hands of Tvind-members.

Humana is collecting clothes in ten European countries for development projects. The Danish government started a financial investigation of an educational-programme of Tvind for which also Dutch students are recruited.  In Germany Humana must state on its containers that it is a commercial enterprise. However in Holland Humana is active as a beneficial organisation. 

 According to the Dutch Central Bureau for Fundraising  (CBF) in Amsterdam, Humana has collected over five million kilos of clothes in 1993.  Most of it was sold to a wholesale trade company in Amsterdam.  That company is, according to former Tvind-teachers, owned by a member of the Danish group. "This might be seen as a clash of interests" reacts A Graaman of CBF.  "But we have never investigated this."

CBF did look at the financial part of Humana.  According to Secretary of State Terpstra (Health, Welfare and Sports Department) no irregularities were found. But CBF does not want to give a judgement about the foundation Humana Recycling that sorts and sells the clothes.

"There will always be negative publicity about Humana," said Terpstra last autumn," because it is a commercial way of development work that does not appeal to everybody."   A much too positive conclusion, according to MPs van Heemst and van Middelkoop who have asked again for an explanation.

It is totally unclear to CBF what happens with the profits of the fundraising in the Third World.  Furthermore CBF has problems with the Tvind-business in developing countries:  the regular purchase of plantations, farms, or factories.   Because "no hard evidence" was found yet, CBF maintains its positive advice to the Dutch cities for raising the clothes.

The Danish Tvind-group is surrounded by a wall of mystery.  From the scarce information of former teachers and a lot of tracing-work, it seems however that all its financial movements are ending in tax-paradises.  How much money the organisation makes exactly, remains a mystery.

Tvind is existing of institutions with schools all over the world and charities that are collecting clothes all over Europe.  Furthermore the group is exploiting over 80 projects all over the world: plantations, farms, real estate and industries that bring profits.  And with those profits Tvind obtains more properties.  Developing-projects and commercial companies, says the Central Bureau for Fundraising (CBF) that wonders where all the profits go to.

While the 'students' of the Danish Tvind-group are used as slaves on the clothing-sorting centres of Humana, founder and 'guru' Amdi Petersen enjoys the good life.     "He is surrounded by a harem. Seven or eight women he has, who are all longing for his favours.   Valuable villas and hotels all over the world, Mercedes, fancy clothes.  Shortly after I have quit, me and some other ex-members have calculated how much money the concern must have. At a billion guilders, we stopped counting."

More than ten years after the Dutch former Tvind-teacher Patricia Brunklaus left the sect, she is still getting depressed by memories.  "I am worried," Brunklaus says, "until now no investigation ever made a difference. Facts and evidence are covered up.  But Tvind is growing.  It is a gigantic concern that is capable in doing almost everything."

At the beginning of the eighties Brunklaus started Tvind-educations in Holland.   They failed because the students, mostly unemployed, were not allowed to keep their social security.  At the moment, however, Tvind-founder Petersen succeeded in buying a huge building in the Dutch village Aalten for 1.2 million guilders.  Cash.

Practically nothing, states City Hall spokesman T Dirksen from Aalten, the bankrupt holiday-centre for holiday people was worth three times more.  Nowadays Tvind's real-estate foundation Faelleseje  is renting the building to the Dutch authorities, as a centre for asylum seekers and refugees.

Aalten was functioning many years as the registration-address for board members of Humana Holland , shows information from the Chamber of Commerce.  From Aalten the track leads to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.    Until 1989 Tvind owned a company called Distributors International Ltd with its holdings on Grand Cayman.

The Chamber of Commerce in Arnhem still has a file about that.  The shares are in the hands of three Danes who, according to Interpol, used false names on Grand Cayman.  'Henry Henning'  (Henning Bjornlund, the financial brain behind Tvind), his wife, 'Vibeke Henning'  and 'Jesper Lubert'.    "Starters of Tvind," knows Brunklaus.  "Henning was an accountant at Tvind, his wife and Lubbert both Tvind-teachers."

The link with the Caribbean should be established to bring under commercial activities of Tvind and to transmit the profits.    Grand Cayman is a financial haven: taxes are low and there are hundreds of banks that keep the utmost secrecy.

The activities in the file of Distributors International on Grand Cayman take over twenty pages.  In which almost every commercial activity is mentioned.   Such as:  practising trade-companies (importers, exporters, fabricants), transport companies (road, sea, air), financial companies, construction companies (buildings, roads, canals), wholesale trade-companies, trade-transport (boats, planes), factories, investing companies, and of course, clothing-companies.

Furthermore the buying of: real estate, companies, patents, refineries of oil platforms.  Even: tracing and buying mines and oil wells.  And: closing deals with foreign governments.  "Bribing, by financial election campaigns," Brunklaus knows.

How successful was the business on Grand Cayman?    "Petersen owned a huge villa there," the former Tvind-teacher states.  "I remember a couple of Tvind-teachers running away there.  They had to dig a swimming pool.   The existing pool was smaller than that of the neighbours and Petersen did not like that."

It is not known whether the Caymans-connection still exists but it seems Tvind has been very active in Holland as well.  Through Humana.

In 1992 Humana collected more than 3.6 million kilos of clothing in our country : a year later even more than five million kilos.   The CBF, that checks beneficial organisations for their liability, says on paper nothing is wrong with Humana.    "But about the commercial way of development we have great doubts" CBF man Graaman tells.  "How the organisation is spending the profits from the European clothing-actions in the Third World is absolutely unclear."

And beside of that, Tvind is obtaining huge economical power in those countries, For that reason the organisation was expelled from St Vincent."

Humana says it is selling 12 to 14 per cent of the collected clothes to its own shops, over 60 per cent goes to clothing-buyers and Africa (where the clothes are sold as well), the rest to the recycling-industry.    A way to keep its own administration 'clean, is selling to its own companies.

After a search along several chambers of commerce, it appears that Humana is  doing business with Textile Transformation EC Trading Ltd in Amsterdam.   Activities:  im- and export and wholesale trade in clothing, Director and owner is Flemming Gustafsson , born in Denmark.    According to Brunklaus and Bent Johanessen of the Organisation Against Tvind in Copenhagen, Gustafsson is conected as a teacher to the Tvind-group.

At EC Trading the phone is answered with 'Unicorn Trans World Trading', registered in Amsterdam.  Activities: international import and export of trade goods, supplying commissionary activities in trade in raw materials and other goods.   Further Unicorn is in transport, stock and distribution.  Shareholder is Lars Malte Hansen, born in Denmark and registered on an address in Togo.      Former directors are Jonas Israel  born in the United States and Hans Lautsten  from Denmark.    Brunklaus and Johanessen know both names.  From the Tvind teacher-group.

In Amsterdam is also registered the company Procurement White Hall Agency Ltd.  That delivers so-called 'key projects' and is involved in imp- and export and wholesale trade for projects in developing countries.  Director is again Gustaffson

Shareholder of this company is Customlong Agencies in Essex, nowadays Agency Notre Dame Ltd in London.   A holding that trades in furniture  -  Tvind owns at least a furniture factory in Mozambique.    Shareholders are Gustaffson and Peter Hansen in Rockville, USA.    Present director is the Dutchman Joep Nagel, on St Maarten, Netherlands Antilles.  "A loyal teacher who joined the sect i 1972" says Brunklaus.

Nagel is registered at the address of Speetjens Notaries on St Maarten.  A spokesman of that office says Agency Notre Dame is a so-called offshore company: a mailbox ltd that is registered in St Maarten because of its profitable financial climate.

The construction looks quite similar to the lines that a Swedish investigation-bureau discovered in 1990 for the Swedish Department of Foreign Affairs.   The Swedes detected a 'secret' Tvind clothing factory in Morocco.  The company was owned by the International Emergency Centre, that was in its turn part of the offshore Talata company in Guernsey.

That company was registered at an address of a British accountant and had a telephone number on the Cayman Islands.  The number of the Tropical Farming Ltd plantation owned by Tvind's Faelleseje.

Director P Jensen of Humana Holland says he does not know anything about these matters.   He confirms that his organisation sells clothes to Textile Transformation EC Trading, but 'because of the competition' does not want to say in how large quantities.   Jensen says he does not know as well that the companies are owned by Tvind-members.    "And I do not know anything about the Cayman Islands or Humana board members that were registered on addresses in Aalten.  I have never ever heard of a company in Aalten."

Strange.  Because Jensen does confirm he knew Kirsten Toft, a former board-member of Humana Holland and Tvind-teacher.  According to the Chamber of Commerce in Arnhem, she was also the proxy of distributors International in Aalten:  the 'Cayman-company' in Tvind's building in Aalten.

According to Jensen Humana and Tvind are not linked in juridical way. But he agrees that the organisations have liaisons through persons.  The Dane P Jorgensen, for example, is chairman of the board of directors of Tvind's Necessary Teacher Training College, chairman of Tvind's real-estate foundations Faelleseje and Estate, the Thomas Brocklebank Shipping, and board member at several Humana organisations in Europe, such as Humana Holland.

Beside of that, former Tvind-students declare that for weeks they have been sorting clothes and constructing clothing containers on the Humana central.  "In 1993 this only happened two or three times for a couple of days," reacts Jensen.  He admits that for the foreign students there was no work permit or permission for residence.   "But that was not our task."  Jensen does not know if taxes over these activities were paid.   Tvind-spokesman Jorgensen in Denmark did not want to react, and interrupted the telephone conversation after calling this newspaper being "filled with lies".

For Members of Parliament P van Heemst (Social Democrats) and E van Middelkoop (GPV) the discoveries of this newspaper lead to more chamber-questions about Humana and Tvind to the ministers concerned.  "It is a frustrating case," says Van Middelkoop.   "Since years, I know Humana is not in order, but until now we could not find proof.  A beneficial organisation that has nothing to hide, is open.  But Humana always gives rise to suspicion and shows an evil side.   External control is impossible, the organisation exists of unclear structures and it is impossible to check the pattern of expenses.  I must admit:  it is a construction of genius.   Otherwise Tvind and Humana could never have survived for all these years."