Planet Aid Web site is located at www.planetaid.org
- December 10, 2007 Charity comes under fire, by SARAH HOFIUS HALL, Times-Tribune, Scranton Pennsylvania
A charity that is collecting more than 4 tons of clothing each week in Lackawanna County has been the subject of national criticism for its practices and was given a grade of "F" by the American Institute of Philanthropy.
The arrival of Planet Aid, which began placing its yellow collection boxes in the area about six months ago...
...Red boxes, which also started to arrive about six months ago ... U'SAgain, a for-profit clothing collection company with ties to Planet Aid, now has 15 to 20 boxes in the Scranton area.
Planet Aid organizers refute criticism of the group's practices and say any negative effects on other charities are unintended...
- On TV June 14, 2007 Planet Aid Investigation, I-Team, CBS 3, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Video included)
...Planet Aid...
...You've seen them around the Delaware Valley, clothing donation bins to help the poor...
...And the secret ways that group is using the money, to fund unorthodox schools, have led some to call them a cult...
...And it could be these bright yellow boxes that are hurting the most.
These yellow bins are owned by an organization called Planet Aid...
...So called Training Colleges that are not in Africa, but rather California and in Massachusetts...
...British journalist Michael Durham - after years of research - says the fundraising and profits from the clothing donations are really going to a group called Tvind which has 860 million dollars in assets.
Critics call Tvind a cult because they say it requires members to cut off from family and friends and restricts information from the outside world.
Kai Nelson with Philadelphia's Planet Aid wouldn't address critics directly but defended his organization... saying again the oft-repeated claims that any proceeds go to help the poor in Africa...
- January 18, 2007 Berkeley Removes Green Boxes After CBS 5 Report, Anna Werner, CBS 5, San Francisco, California (Video included.)
...They have to have a license or a permit to have their boxes all over the city so they picking it up. The group that set out those boxes, called Campus California, says the money from that clothes collection operation goes into programs to train volunteers to help with development in countries including Africa. But CBS 5’s investigation raises questions about the group's connections to a controversial Danish organization called Tvind whose top leaders are being retried on charges of fraud and tax evasion...
- December 9, 2006 'Cult-like' mystery charity looking to recruit, By PATRICK CREWDSON, Dominion Post via Stuff.co.nz
A mysterious "cult-like" charity led by a millionaire fugitive is scouting in Wellington for volunteers to work in Africa. Posters around the city are appealing for Kiwis to study through the Humana People to People programme to become "development instructors" working with street kids and HIV/Aids sufferers in Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Botswana.
Humana is affiliated to the worldwide Tvind network, described in a recent court case in Denmark as a $500 million maze of charities and companies active in 55 countries...
... "It's a serious concern that this group is operating in New Zealand."
- September 4, 2006 Asda evicts recyclers that are not registered charities, By Sarah Butler, Times Online, UK
ASDA has evicted a network of clothing recyclers from its car parks after discovering that the companies behind donation bins are not registered charities.
The supermarket sent a legal letter to Planet Aid, a company linked to the mysterious Danish organisation Humana People to People, asking it to remove all bins before this past weekend. Some had appeared overnight without permission...
...Both Humana UK and Planet Aid are linked through Ms Soe to the Teachers� Group, sometimes known as Tvind. Ms Soe acknowledged that she was a member of the group...
- August 31, 2006 Danish court convicts 1, acquits 7, in fraud case involving humanitarian groups - The Associated Press via International Herald Tribune, France
COPENHAGEN, Denmark A local court on Thursday convicted the financial controller of several humanitarian organizations in a major Danish fraud and embezzlement case, but acquitted seven other suspects, including the alleged ringleader.
Sten Byrner was given a one-year suspended sentence in a case allegedly involving the embezzlement...
...Prosecutor Poul Gade had argued the fraud was orchestrated by Mogens Amdi Petersen, the founder of Tvind, a private Danish foundation he created in 1970 and known worldwide as Humana People-To-People. Peterson denied controlling any foundations connected to Tvind...
...Ringkoebing City Court, 230 kilometers (140 miles) west of Copenhagen, acquitted seven of the group, including the 67-year-old Petersen...
- April 2, 2006 Clothing service has links to fraud investigation, By Ron Knox, Lawrence Journal-World, Kansas
Defenders say Planet Aid runs clean operation, fills need
When Uli Stosch began placing yellow clothing collection boxes around the Kansas City metro area, she knew Lawrence's recycling faithful would donate all they could...
...Stosch runs the Kansas City branch of Massachusetts-based Planet Aid, which dropped its first yellow bin in the Lawrence area last fall. Local retailers who agreed to have the boxes on their property say they were quickly filled with used clothing and shoes...
...the money raised by selling used clothes is funneled to charities with links to Tvind, a worldwide business whose founders, including Morgens Amdi Peterson, have been charged with fraud and money laundering in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe...
...Peterson founded Tvind in 1977, and the group quickly became associated with secrecy in both its public image and financial dealings, according to several media accounts. The core group of founders, often called the Teachers Group, has been called a cult in Europe and has prompted government leaders there to seek continent-wide investigations...
- November 4, 2005 Planet Aid boxes probed, By Erik Gable, Daily Telegram News, Adrian, Michigan
The yellow clothing donation boxes set up around Lenawee County by a group called Planet Aid...
- March 4, 2004 Former Tvind volunteers recall disenchanting practices, by MONICA ENG AND DAVID JACKSON, Chicago Tribune via KRT Wire (CHICAGO - (KRT) - Clothing collection boxes aren't the only way Tvind raises cash in the United States. Since the 1980s, the Danish organization has found reliable moneymaking machines in its hundreds of American volunteers.
The young people who join Tvind's three Institutes for International Cooperation and Development (IICD) each agree to hand over roughly $5,000 for tuition as they train to spend a year doing humanitarian work in the developing world...)
- February 13, 2004 Blurred vision, by Monica Eng and David Jackson, Tribune staff reporters, Chicago Tribune, Illinois
(Photo of Mogens Amdi Pedersen included.)
Mogens Amdi Pedersen founded Tvind as a teachers' collective in Denmark and then took it worldwide -- including Chicago's used-clothing charity, Gaia. Now authorities in Europe call Tvind a cult...
...The Denmark-based organization known as Tvind runs schools, charities and for-profit businesses in more than 35 countries around the world. In the U.S., Tvind runs several linked clothing collection businesses, as well as three schools. The operations share officers and funds with each other...
- February 12, 2004 Tvind sought troubled kids to employ, by David Jackson, Tribune staff reporter, Chicago Tribune, Illinois
Tvind leaders hit on a novel strategy to make the most of the bright green clothing-collection bins that dot Chicago-area streets: They attempted to enlist foster children and juvenile delinquents to help gather and sort the clothes.
Since it gained a foothold in the U.S. in the 1980s, the Danish organization known as Tvind has tried without success to operate schools and residential treatment programs for troubled youth...
- February 12, 2004 The green bins of Gaia, by David Jackson and Monica Eng, Tribune staff reporters, Chicago Tribune, Illinois (Gaia's clothing collection business flourishes in Chicago, but its promises to promote the environment are questionable. Meanwhile, the organization's leaders are under criminal indictment in Europe...
...Instead, the ubiquitous green bins finance a shadowy international organization known as "Tvind," sometimes called "the Teachers Group."...
...In Denmark, prosecutors have charged Tvind founder Mogens Amdi Pedersen and seven top aides with a multimillion-dollar embezzlement and criminal tax evasion scheme...
...Authorities in Belgium have indicted Pedersen and six Tvind leaders for money laundering.
Former Tvind members and European authorities have called the group a secular cult...)
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- Blurred vision, Chicago Tribune, February 13, 2004
Mogens Amdi Pedersen founded Tvind as a teachers' collective...
- Tvind Alert - An interactive investigation into Tvind
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