Tvind founder seen in Singapore

One of the country's most elusive men was spotted on the streets of Singapore by a Danish school teacher

Copenhagen Post/December 4, 2006

Still eluding Danish authorities, Tvind Humanitarian Fund founder Mogens Amdi Petersen was spotted in Singapore this past week by a Danish teacher.

Petersen was seen with Kirsten Larsen, another of the organisation's seven leaders who were acquitted of fraud earlier this year. Prosecutors now have additional evidence against them and are planning a new trial.

Two of the seven have been served their writs, but police have been unable to locate the remaining five and are assumed to have fled Denmark.

After recognising Petersen in Singapore, the man asked him in English what his name was. He said Petersen pretended not to understand, but then tapped the teacher's hat in acknowledgement of being found out.

Tvind's leadership came under investigation in 2000, when a former employee alleged the group had misused the organisation’s tax-exempt status to embezzle DKK 70 million.

Suspicions of fraud in Tvind were rife already in the late 1970s, and the founder's whereabouts were unknown from 1979 until 2001 when he was found living the high life in Florida. US authorities caught up with him in Los Angeles in 2002, however, and he was subsequently extradited to Denmark.

The Tvind Humanitarian Fund was originally founded by Petersen in the 1970s as an ideological organisation for social development projects and environmental experiments that included a network of schools, industries and agricultural productions throughout the world.

The man has notified the Danish police about the sighting.