30 Minutes Bay Area

Behind The Green Box

(CBS 5) A new charity in the Bay Area is welcoming volunteers and clothing donations through its green-colored bins with the friendly "Gaia" label. But behind the green box, investigative reporter Anna Werner uncovers a Danish organization known as "Tvind," or "Teacher's Group." Critics call it a cult that is using people's good will to make millions in profit.

'Tis the season of giving when bell ringers are out in front of stores and charities collect money and clothing for the poor. And appearing on many corners are bright green boxes where people donate clothing. At first glance it may look like just another charity. But a closer look behind the green box raises questions about who put them there and where those donations are going.

They're popping up all over, green boxes with a large "GAIA" logo. Oakland, San Rafael, Lafayette, soon to be over 300 of them in the Bay Area. And for people who are eager to donate their old clothing to help charitable causes, like Jodie Consoli. "It's really convenient," she says, "because I can go anytime I want and drop them in there."

And the convenience factor is paying off. The man who supervises the recycled clothes collection from those new green boxes, Jan Sako, says his group is now raking in the donations. "For '05 the total collections is 3.1 million pounds," he told us. That's the same amount the Salvation Army in Oakland collected last year, and they have been around for years. What's at stake? Big bucks.

"There is money in used clothing," says Major Bill Heiselma. For the Salvation Army, he says, that 3 million pounds of recycled clothing would bring in about 3 million dollars. "It's much more competitive now in 2006 as compared to 1986," he explains. And what the Salvation Army does with that money is help local residents struggling with addiction to turn their lives around.

So -where does the money from the green boxes go? One might think Africa. "It has a picture of a child that looks like they're from a poor society, so it indicated that they would be helping those poor societies.," says Jodi Consoli. But when we asked Jan Sako, he told us "There is no direct money going to Africa." We asked him, if people think they are giving clothes to a charity, would that be correct? "That's probably a misleading thing, yes," he told us. Instead he told us the fine print on those bins says the purpose is to train international volunteers for development programs in southern Africa and South America.

And where do they train those volunteers to work in Africa? He says at "Campus California" here in the Northern California logging town of Etna. So just what is 'Campus' California? It's a small, 2-story office building with an empty lot next door, not much to look at.

Dean Fowler, from Britain, was one of the first volunteers who attended the school. "Mostly I wanted to travel and like, see the world," he told us. "But at the same time, you know, do something that would make an impact." But of his training? He says it was spotty at best, "like watching a DVD on Battlestar Galactica.or playing chess.

And those trainers? He and other former volunteers told CBS 5 there were few if any real teachers. "The guy who was our teacher for our group was actually a volunteer and only because he showed up first." And when CBS5 went undercover at a training recruitment session for future development volunteers, we found that much of Campus California's "training" is really devoted to fundraising. Recruiter Josefin Johnson told the group: "So it's a lot of different tasks. And some are working with the second hand clothes collection." And in addition to paying more than $3,000 in "program fees", each trainee must regularly solicit for money on the street. In fact, when one of our producers asked: "If you had a good amount of money, do you have to fundraise?" Josefin told her: "The answer is yes. The reason is the fundraising is very educational. You learn so much for being out there for walking, for talking, for doing it again and again and again."

Basically Fowler says they were trained to beg. "It was all about the money. They'd tell you, in the 6 month period, there's 7 weeks of fundraising. And you have to earn $7,000 dollars.

In fact, when former volunteer Nicole Mourant heard about our investigation, she agreed to make this tape and send it from Canada, just so she could tell us her concerns. "They raise a lot of money," she told us. But she says there were concerns. "After the first week a few of us were really talking again about where exactly this money is going. It was not what it seems. And I didn't like not knowing the whole story behind the organization.

So what is that story? It goes back to Denmark and a group called Tvind that started in the 1970's. "They were hippies, they were Maoist type communists," says Michael Durham, a British journalist who has set up a website to investigate the group. "The reason people haven't heard more about the group was because it was founded and run by Danish people," he told us.

But that small Danish group has now grown into a worldwide multi-million dollar empire with a murky network of companies, with 13 training schools including Campus California. "What's happened over the last 20 years or so is that the people who began this and control the organization have moved into a huge profit making organization." Durham says by Danish police estimates, Tvind now has some $860 million dollars in assets which the Danish Government says includes luxury homes, yachts and plantations. "The amounts of money involved in this are just breathtaking."

And that helped spark a major prosecution of Tvind leader Mogens Amdi Pedersen, and seven other Tvind leaders by the Danish government, for fraud and tax evasion. "Countless inquiries and investigations have raised questions about where the money goes and what it's used for," says Durham. So where does he think the money, potentially tens of millions of dollars, from the U.S. clothing operations goes? "They are not going to Africa," Durham told us. "They are being sold within the organization and most of the money is being creamed off."

Durham points to an Atlanta based company called Garson and Shaw, whose top two executives are Tvind members. And what is Garson and Shaw's business? Selling used clothes for a profit. Clothes that they get from non-profit clothes collectors who we found are also connected to Tvind.

Which raises the question: Is Campus California , a registered non-profit, siphoning off potential income to a for-profit company under the same umbrella? We attempted to ask that question of Garson and Shaw but they refused to comment.

And remember Josefin Johnson, the Campus California official in our undercover video? We found her at the campus in Etna and tried to ask her that same question. She closed the door on us and said: "No I don't want to comment, sorry!"

And when we went to ask Jan Sako: "You sell clothes to Garson & Shaw?" He would only say: "This is a business information. I am wondering how did you get that information because I think .." Are you trying to tell me it's not true?" we asked him. His answer: "I am not going to tell you anyone we sell clothes to."

"The reason that they've operated with impunity for so long in the United States is because people are not asking the right questions," says Durham. And former volunteer Dean Fowler says, when it comes to Campus California he believes... "They are not telling you the whole truth if they are telling you the truth at all."

By the way, that volunteer, Dean Fowler, never got to Africa. He says after he refused to do any more fundraising at Campus California, he was told to leave. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Denmark convicted one of the Tvind members they prosecuted and are refiling against the rest.

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