A US author nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan has agreed to repay US$1 million to his charity after a probe into financial misdealings.
Greg Mortenson, who wrote the best-selling Three Cups of Tea account about his work, has also agreed to resign from his charity’s board for “financial transgressions” in a settlement reached with the Montana attorney general.
A year-long investigation by the attorney general’s office found Mortenson had mismanaged his Central Asia Institute (CAI), with millions of dollars of donations spent on charter flights, family vacations and personal items.
Photo: Reuters
The settlement was a major setback for the philanthropist once widely praised for his work, which even the US military upheld as having useful applications for its counterinsurgency campaigns.
The probe by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock followed an expose last year alleging that some of the most dramatic episodes in Mortenson’s best-selling memoir and its popular sequel, Stones into Schools, were fabricated and largely served as a conduit to self-enrichment.
In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson tells the stirring story of how he was rescued and nursed to health in a remote Pakistani village after a failed climb of the formidable mountain K2 in 1993.
The 2009 Nobel nominee writes that as he recovered, he promised villagers to come back and build a school, a decision that gave birth to his now famous campaign.
However, Bullock said that following “significant lapses in judgment,” Mortenson could no longer hold “any position of financial oversight” or serve as a voting member of CAI’s board of directors, though he can keep a non-executive role.
“Despite the severity of their errors, CAI is worth saving,” Bullock added.
CAI executive director Anne Beyersdorfer said the group disagrees with some of the report’s analysis and conclusions, but “we look forward to moving ahead as an even stronger organization.”
She said Mortenson would be involved in CAI’s future.
Mortenson, who resigned as executive director last year, has repaid US$495,000 of US$1.05 million owed to CAI, leaving him with US$560,000 to repay over three years because he has “insufficient financial resources” to pay it all at once, according to the attorney general’s report.
The investigation pointed to a significant lack of financial accountability, with vast amounts of cash spent overseas without supporting receipts and other documentation as Mortenson’s expenses went largely unchallenged by CAI’s board.
In one of the most egregious cases, CAI spent about US$3.96 million buying Mortenson’s books — largely at full price from online retailers — to donate them without using his publisher’s discount.
Mortenson never abided by a CAI agreement requiring him to donate the equivalent of the royalties he made from the purchases or split the US$4.93 million CAI paid to promote and advertise the books.
The report said Mortenson was “double-dipping” prior to the investigation, not reimbursing CAI for travel expenses, despite receiving an honorarium from event sponsors.
Among the “substantial” expenses Mortenson charged to the charity he co-founded were “LL Bean clothing, iTunes, luggage, luxurious accommodations and even vacations,” according to the report.
Yet Mortenson was not alone in making unaccounted charges to CAI’s accounts. The charity’s credit card statements showed “questionable charges” by other employees at restaurants, bars and spas, as well as on health club dues and gifts, the report said.
However, CAI had good financial standing, with US$23 million in reserves as it had cashed a lot more donations than it spent.
CAI has helped communities build more than 180 schools and supports 56 more. It has also helped build 30 women’s vocational centers.
However, CBS television’s 60 Minutes program last year said many of the schools supposedly run by Mortenson’s charity had never opened, while others were deserted or operating without links to Mortenson. The Montana probe did not delve into those issues.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in