The LA Times writes here about shenanigans — revealed by the Montana Attorney General’s office — by the charity group Central Asia Institute, co-founded by “Three Cups of Tea” author Greg Mortenson, who has been ordered to pay back $1 million. I received Mortenson’s book as a Christmas gift a couple years ago. It was given to me by a friend who was smitten by this group’s purported efforts. This story is a reminder about the need for due diligence when donating to charity.
“The story of Central Asia Institute and Greg Mortenson evokes notions of the best of our aspirations to do good and the generosity of the American public,” Montana Atty. Gen. Steve Bullock wrote about the charity, based in Bozeman, Mont. “It involves the efforts of a complicated person who has worked tirelessly on behalf of a noble pursuit, even while acting in a way that jeopardized that pursuit.”
That “way” involved donor money — given to promote education and literacy in war-torn and impoverished Central Asia — being spent on charter flights for family vacations, clothing and Internet downloads, the report said. The charismatic Mortenson, whose personal wealth “multiplied significantly” as the charity grew more popular, also took inappropriate speaking fees from the charity for his promotional work, the investigation found.
The Attorney General’s report is available here.
