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AP
Award-winning “Three Cups of Tea” author Greg Mortenson has agreed to pay $1 million to a nonprofit he co-founded to settle allegations that he misspent charity money on personal items such as plane flights for family vacations and iTunes downloads, the Montana attorney general said Thursday.
In a 44-page report, Attorney General Steve Bullock said a yearlong investigation by his office concluded that Mortenson mismanaged his nonprofit, the Bozeman-Mont.-based Central Asia Institute, and personally profited from it.
“Mortenson’s pursuits are noble and his achievements are important. However, serious internal problems in the management of CAI surfaced,” Bullock said in the report.
Mortenson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment through the Central Asia Institute. Interim director Anne Beyersdorfer told The Associated Press that the author will continue to be a paid employee, promoting CAI and building relationships overseas, but will no longer be on the board of directors.
“While we respectfully disagree with some of the analysis and conclusions in the OAG’s report, we look forward to moving ahead as an even stronger organization, focusing on CAI’s vital mission,” Beyersdorfer said in a separate statement on the CAI website.
“CAI has always been a small group of dynamic, mission-centric individuals doing extraordinary work. Mistakes were made during a rapid period of growth, and we have corrected or are in the process of correcting them.”
Mortenson became a huge name in philanthropy – and quite wealthy – after his 2006 book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time,” became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. He followed up with another bestseller, “Stones into Schools,” in 2009.
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In “Three Cups,” Mortenson tells of how his failed 1993 attempt to climb K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain, resulted in a series of happenstance encounters that led him to establish schools for impoverished children in the remote villages of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But his reputation as an international philanthropist and globetrotting do-gooder became tarnished after an April 2011 “60 Minutes” report in which author and fellow climber Jon Krakauer cited witness accounts that contradicted essential parts of Mortenson’s version of his experiences in South-Central Asia. The report also raised questions about the way his charity’s funds were being managed and spent.
The report led to an investigation by the Montana attorney general’s office, which reviewed thousands of pages of documents and took sworn statements from Mortenson and others.
Bullock noted the investigation did not focus on whether Mortenson lied in his books, and it didn’t turn up evidence of conduct that could lead to criminal prosecution. Instead, it looked into CAI’s arrangements with Mortenson concerning his books and speaking engagements, as well as the financial affairs of the charity.
The probe found that the Central Asia Institute had spent about $3.96 million since 2006 to buy copies of "Three Cups of Tea," which were then distributed to libraries, schools, the military and others. Mortenson was supposed to provide a contribution to CAI equal to the amount of royalty payments he received from the book purchases, but failed to do so, investigators concluded.
The report also noted that Mortenson made hundreds of public appearances and speaking engagements to promote the book and CAI, often receiving sizable speaking fees. At the same time that the CAI was paying for his travel costs, many event sponsors were paying for similar costs. “Thus, Mortenson was ‘double dipping,’" the report said.
In one of the most damning passages, the report said:
“Mortenson, in particular, consistently failed to comply with either commonly accepted business practices or CAI’s policy manual with respect to documenting expenses charged on CAI’s accounts. The issue was repeatedly raised through the years. Board members testified that despite requests, cajoling, demands and admonitions, they were unsuccessful in getting Mortenson to submit proper documentation to support the charges he was making to the charity.
The board went so far as to provide Mortenson with a personal assistant while traveling. This, however, also failed, as the personal assistant, himself, did not adequately comply with expense reimbursement requirements, nor did he cure the problems relating to Mortenson’s expenses.
The more significant issue was not simply compliance with expense reimbursement and documentation policies, but the nature and magnitude of charges for which inadequate documentation exists. Through the years, Mortenson charged substantial personal expenses to CAI. These include expenses for such things as LL Bean clothing, iTunes, luggage, luxurious accommodations, and even vacations."
Under the settlement agreement, Mortenson must reimburse the charity more than $1 million. Nearly half has already been repaid.
Mortenson underwent surgery in June 2011 to repair a hole in his heart, and he later stepped down as executive director of the organization.
Beyersdorfer said the fallout from the investigation won't detract from the Central Asia Institute's mission of helping children in fofgotten places.
"News fatigue about Pakistan and Afghanistan is evident everywhere we look these days. But the children and their parents, village elders, and teachers with whom we work cannot look away; this is about their futures," she said in a statement. "Greg and our overseas managers have dedicated their lives to helping fulfill countless dreams and aspirations and we are honored to continue our life-changing work together."
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Meanwhile, it's business as usual on Wall Street.
How typical, liberals love to change the topic when one of their own gets caught red handed.
It's a matter of freedom!
meanwhile....its vacation at the white house,Mexico and Las Vegas!!!!!!
Oh, Please don't take my piggy-bank away!
About 3 years ago I attended a speaking appearance by Mr. Mortinsen, in which he talked about his transformation from a failed mountain climber to a coordinator of charitable works. He was an inspriing speaker.
It is disappointing to find he has feet of clay.
Whenever money and fame are involved, donors should be wary.
The One Acre Project in Africa operates on a mostly all volunteer basis and is changing the lives of small farmers.
Little World Community Organization in Pakistan is completely all volunteer and has educated thousands of women in small villages who would have no opportunity for literacy without it. All the villages with a LWCO school report an improvement in their lives.
Check out both organizations. They are completely transparent and can be trusted.
"Misspent money" = Got caught stealing
Another case of lack of justice for the rich. Someone else would be in jail.
I don't know Mortensen, but having read his books I accept his self description as a guy who stumbled out of near anonymity as a Himalayan mountain climbing bum from Seattle into the role of activist-philanthropist for which he was untrained but determined to make a difference. He admits in his first book that he led a pretty disorganized life until he found the chance to do something for poor people living in the north of Pakistan and Afghanistan who revered the same mountains that he did. He helped build a couple of schools for girls. That led to more, and then more, which created the need for financial patronage. Naturally, he turned to other mountain climbers for help.
Unfortunately, there exists in the mountain climber culture a virile segment that is hyper competitive and pretty fanatical about exactitude: Which precise route did you take up the north face? Or was it the NNE face? Was it a 5.6 class or 5.66? Did you use pitons? How many, and did you remove them all? Shame if you missed one!! Some climbers think those details are the most important things in life and could never understand the value of connecting with and helping the human beings who happen to live in the mountains that they climb in "assaults." Edmund Hillary of Everest was an exception. After reading Krakauer's books, it seems clear that he is one of the detail fanatics and Mortensen is not. That is what this "expose" comes down to.
In the end, I applaud Mortensen's attempts and successes in making a positive difference to connect our world with that of these remote mountain people living their harsh daily lives. I am not happy about his sloppy book-keeping, or story mix-ups, but I doubt that that would matter at all to the children whose lives were improved by his efforts, even if it means so much to some of the rest of us. The amount of money he may have misused (probably mainly by carelessness) seems a pittance compared to the vast wasted sums of tax-payer money that disappeared into the pockets of corrupt "allies" in Iraq, Afghanistan, and such places. I hope someone steps in to help Mortensen pay the bills and let him continue his work.
Thank you John - The man deserves to be left alone and I pray for strength for his children and the children he has helped educate.
Thank you for so eloquently articulating what many of us believe to be true about Greg Mortensen and his tireless work helping those less fortunate and forgotten, and for putting over-hyped media into perspective.
I will continue to believe in Greg and his mission, and to support them. Education is the key, and Mr. Mortensen is an inspiration to us all.
Thank you, John. I wasn't sure how to express myself on this matter, but what you have written pretty much echoes my feelings and beliefs.
That's about $333,333.33 per cup.
Sir, what is your point? Have you read the books?
The "three cups of tea" refer to the process of building relationships that is the norm in that part of the world. From his books, it seems that he must have drunk hundreds of cups, if not thousands, as part of his attempt to help build schools for girls.
I think your ISP is dropping your sense of humor packets there, john-1453080.
Sir, sorry but this man's important work has been impugned by other armchair critics who aren't pulling their load. I am especially critical of the mountain-climbing prima donnas. Usually I like 60 Minutes, but in this instance they were suckered.
I recommend that you read the books. Even the General Petraeus and the US Army have benefited from Greg's work and his insights into the culture of these mountain people.
He is such a nice guy, I met him when I worked at the airport and he truly is remarkable. Sad to see that his mismanagement of money caught up to him.
Caroline
So what? You would be happier if he hadn't been caught stealing? You'd rather he continued to get away with it? Benefiting from it in some way were you?
What bothers me about this is that no charity gives 100% of the money they collect. Most only give 25% and keep the rest for "operational cost" i.e big fat salaries. I recently watched a Real Sports on HBO concerning the many Bowl games and how it's stated that 50% of the monies made by said Bowl games went to the communities and when the tax record were checked they were really giving less than 10% and most of the college Bowl games got state grants that were for more than what they gave back.
So tired of these fake charities! You can't trust any international charity, who knows what they do with the money? Schools in Afghanistan - yeah, right! This is why I stopped donating to anything other than local charities where I can see actual results.
and what do you think the CEO/ heads of the real charaties get? Locally Amer Red Cross owns property has full time staff...so does the every other national and local "real" charity...Greg has done a lot of good, when he could have continued to be just a climber...he was living on virtually nothing when he began "his" charity...a lot more inspiring than the people I have had to deal with with "real" charities...many of the local "non_profits" which are in theory, charitable organizations are more often than not a cover for income for the individual setting up the non-profit. Those are "Fake" charities.
Some people are "doers". they see a need and can't be bothered with the paper work required by our need to make sure everyone operates the way the law says they should. Those people eventually have to get out of the way of what they start because they can't operate within society's rules. Thank god they at least start something or we'd be stuck with nothing but government funded organizations spending more money on compliance than meeting needs. Sometimes those individuals die with nothing having given all their rights to financial reward to their vision. Other times they keep some for themselves. If they do that they can count on someone looking over their soldiers.
Yes, in America, some people are "doers", like Ken Lay, like Bernie Madoff, like Sir Allen Stanford, like all those investment bank executives & traders, and AIG executives, and Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac executives, and mortgage company executives, and the securities rating company executives, and all those commercial bank executives, and all those public accounting executives, and Halliburton executives, and Rick Scott (former CEO of HCA, current governor of Florida), and all those BP & related executives, and Rod Blagojevich, etc., etc., etc.
Oh where oh where would we be without these great stalwarts, boldly striding forward and "doing" things without regard to the law? Yes, it is so sad that people like these eventually have to get out of the way of what they start, because they can't operate within society's rules. Oh cruel society! Thank God there are plenty of people willing to demonstrate that good old fashioned Biblical value of loyalty, and overlook these people's minor indiscretions, and provide moral support for these great heroes! Makes me want to take out my Bible and my flag and sing:
Well I'm proud to be a Conservative Christian, it means I'm always right!
We lie, cheat, hate, and obfuscate, then claim Christ guides our light!
And we proudly stand up...and claim superiority!
Oh yes, God bless us and curse all the rest, for eternity!
Being a climbing bum does not prepare you to run a large venture let alone a non-profit. If all he has left to "pay back" is a half million I would say he is already well on his way to making good. The fact that he has paid more than half of it back already says a lot.
Now if this was a government funded boondoggle like Solyndra...the half a billion dollars just evaporates into the principals pockets and they don't even see a reason to "pay back" one red cent...unless it is to get President Obama re-elected. See the difference in integrity? I sure do.
Well done Mr. Mortensen...let the foundation make the rules and you follow them and all will be okay. Great book by the way and the military has benefited by its reading and practice.
The CIA was paying his travel expenses?! (Is there a copy editor in the house, please?)
They may have fofgotten to edit it (see second to last paragraph)
I knew when I saw CAI that they would have to slip in a CIA somewhere - just to remind us that none of their articles can be free from error. It's policy.
Either the person who wrote this article is dyslexic or there are more dirty secrets about this story than we know. Nope, it's just MSNBC, the no-quality-control-news site!
And "fofgotten" isn't even a word! Jeez!
Mortenson was an emergency room nurse before his work with building schools. I'm sorry to see this happen. Education will defeat the Taliban.
The whacko Evangelical pseudo-Christian nut jobs say Jesus will defeat the Taliban! lol
I see your dumass comments all over post about everything. You are a true democrat. Everything is bad, everyone is wrong, Christians are nut jobs, ......GO LOOK IN THE MIRROR. It's been my experience that the person that screams the most and loudest about anything is the most guilty.
Not all International Charties bogus or full of crooks. I know of one out of Revelstoke, BC Canada that is run by Ray Brosseuk and he does not take a paycheck. Actually he puts in more money than anyone else. In the summers he is a placer gold miner and he uses much of his finds(gold) to keep his organazation running. Most of the items are donated like in some of the last shipments.... hundreds of bales of shoes, sneakers and clothes that volunteers sorted and packaged
43,000 lbs of ceramic tile destined for a children’s hospital in Swaziland
about 6,000 eyeglasses from the Lions’ Club
obsolete wheelchairs and crutches from the Red Cross
150 barrels of packaged dried soups (each barrel contains 80 one-kilo bags, each of which can feed 200 orphans)
industrial equipment, computers and building materials
thousands of pounds of variuos medical supplies and medicine
school books, tools, farming and industrial equipment
He then builds schools and clinics, teaches the locals how to farm and be self sufficient as this then also helps neighboring villages
His Org is called Partners for Others and they have shipped to South Pacific, Asia, the Caribbean, and Southern Africa. With ongoing projects in Fiji, Swaziland, and Lesotho.
Some of the things he has done is incredible
Check them out Partnersforothers dot com
partnersforothers.com
Money spoils everyone!!
Just a nit-picky correction, K2 is Earth's second highest mountain, not second tallest. There are many that are much taller, but who's bases are below sea level, such as Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which is actually the tallest mountain on Earth.
ya ya ya.... ALL mountain elevations are based on the distance ABOVE SEA LEVEL. What does the 78 stand for? Probably your age....you are senile
you miss the point jim,
Mauna Kea is LARGER than Everest or K2. Mt. McKinley is also TALLER than Everest or K2. Everest is the HIGHEST mountain.
Highest = Elevation
Tallest = height from base to summit
Largest = most total size (Sea level does not factor in this equation)
Mauna Kea, measured from it's base, 20k' below sea level to the peak - 33,264' - Largest
Mt McKinley, measured from it's base, 980' above sea level to the peak - 19,340' - Tallest
Mt Everest, measured from it's base, 13,800' above sea level to the peak - 15,229' - Highest @29,029' above sea level
Chimborazo, measured from the center of the Earth to it's summit - 20,946,288' (compared to Everest's 20,939,424') - Furthest point from planetary center
As you can see, there are many ways of measuring things, there is no one standard.
I'm guessing the 78 you questioned was a minimum IQ level required to grasp the concept. Apparently you don't measure up.
Another self promoting dogooder bites the dust. Maybe he should have run a mega church in the bible belt!
I read the books and was close to sending a check when the sh*t hit the fan. I think that I'll send the money to Planned Parenthood instead. Disgusting!
Notice anything in common here? Hell this guy can be the next president
He lied about his exploits and then stole, misspent (or whatever) money from a charity and people are defending him?
Rich guy gets caught stealing ("misspent charity money on personal items") he has to pay it back and gets a sound scolding.
Poor guy gets caught stealing, period, he goes to jail, pays restitution, fines, court costs, and spends at least a year on probation.
Yeah, sounds fair.
He misspent money, but he didn't steal it. The charity paid those expenses, and knew that it was paying them (notice the comment in the article about the board members cajoling him to submit documentation). The problem that many charities have is that the Board of Directors is too weak. Mortenson probably selected many of the board members himself and they just couldn't take the one action that would've gotten his attention: cut off the cash and freeze his credit cards.
Greg Mortenson is a good man and has made a positive difference in a crappy world.
read the book, was not impressed but this may have to do with the mandatory force under which i was placed to read it.
The book is inspiring, but a lot of it is fiction. When somebody makes that much stuff up and pretends it's true, you don't know what to believe.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case were non profit organizations take advantage. This is such a wide-spread situation!
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
There are many good groups. We have to ask who's needs are being met.