Gaia Movement USA
The Chicago Reader reported in 2001 that part of the donations were sold in local stores while the majority were exported in bulk, primarily to developing countries.
[2] The authors of a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation observed that "The Gaia bins offer what people seem to want: painless altruism, cleaner closets, and utter convenience".
[2] Memos obtained by the Danish police detailed a grant of $60,000 from Tvind, also known as the Teachers Group (TG), to procure metal collection bins and start Gaia Movement USA's operations in Chicago in 2000.
[3] Tvind, which critics liken to a cult organization, reportedly operates a number of similar aid agencies, as well as boarding schools and various commercial enterprises.
[8] Most have received failing ratings from philanthropy watchdog groups, yet have managed to place thousands of collection bins on streets in the United States.
[11] Based on reports from 2008, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) states that Gaia Movement USA failed to meet 8 of its 20 charity accountability standards.
In what the Tribune describes as "a typical pattern of money movement among Tvind ventures", the actual benefactor was a group in Switzerland named Gaia-Movement.
[3] Gaia's application for nonprofit status listed several projects in developing countries relating to forestry, agriculture, and waste management to be supported with funds generated from clothing donations.
"[2] The costs of maintaining the bins and paying drivers is partly offset in Gaia's case by hiring non-unionized workers, who as of 2004 were also not offered health insurance, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The IICD, a part of Tvind's "DRH Movement", exists ostensibly to train young people for humanitarian projects in developing countries.
[13] Tvind has also attempted to enlist children in foster care and other youthful wards of the state to provide a workforce for Gaia and other clothing- collection charities.
Tvind's application to operate a boarding school in Michigan for troubled youth to work collecting and sorting clothes for Gaia in Chicago was denied in 2003.
[6] Tvind founder Mogens Amdi Petersen was apprehended in the United States in 2002, and later extradited to stand trial in Denmark for embezzlement and tax evasion.
[7][17] In 2013, Petersen and four others were sentenced in absentia to a year in prison for their suspected role in embezzling millions of Danish kroner from the Tvind Humanitarian Fund during the 1990s.
