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Is it a charity to help the poor, or a group cashing in on your good intentions?
FOX-5 has found evidence linking the controversial group Planet Aid to what some call a cult.
Tonight we're introducing you to a former member who says you should think twice before you donate.
Tisha Thompson has our FOX-5 investigation.
Planet Aid says it's placed more than 1,000 of its big, yellow bins in the DC area,
asking for your clothing donation.
But FOX-5 has uncovered evidence linking the charity to a controversial group that many,
including elementary school teacher Jane Doherty, call a cult.
I thought it was a travel-study program for young people.
Ten years ago, Doherty says, she signed up to volunteer in Africa. But instead, she says,
she ended up on the streets of Boston, begging for money.
... And we each had to raise in the neighborhood of $125 a day. We each had to raise that amount
in order to go to where we were supposed to be going.
That was what they told us: "you have to meet these goals."
Doherty says she and the other volunteers were cut off from their friends and family
and rarely allowed to sleep.
I was becoming less and less myself. I was becoming less and less lucid.
We were, you know, sort of as vulnerable as we could be so that they could get what they needed from us.
Doherty thought she was volunteering for the [Institute for International Cooperation & Development],
but says instead she soon realized she had joined a Danish organization called "Tvind."
Cult expert Rick Ross agrees.
The group behind Planet Aid — Tvind — has been on my radar for more than a decade.
Ross says Tvind is Planet Aid's parent organization, and has all the markings of a cult, including
a totalitarian leader named Amdi Pedersen, who Ross says causes harm by
using techniques like sleep deprivation to get his followers to do his bidding.
The organization has a double standard: that the leaders may live well, but that the volunteers
often suffer and live in substandard conditions.
Amdi Pedersen can get people to do things that no rational or sane person would do.
Journalist Mike Durham runs the watchdog group Tvind Alert. He spoke to us from London using Skype.
He can get them to give [him] all [their] money.
He can get them to devote all their time — all their energy — to his cause.
He can get them to withdraw money from a bank in Angola,
and stick it in their back pocket and smuggle it through customs
— because he tells them that's the right thing to do.
Even though European authorities have linked Pedersen to Planet Aid in this court document filed in 2002,
the charity denies any connection.
In a statement to FOX-5, Planet Aid says Pedersen does not have "any relationship with the organization"
and calling it a cult "is a most ridiculous claim" that's based on "unsupported rumors and allegations."
Planet Aid does admit some of its board members are Tvind members, but claims
out "of the approximately 250 people working with Planet Aid, less than 5 percent" belong to the group.
On its website, Planet Aid says belonging to Tvind "is a lifestyle choice that may not be for everyone,"
and that "anyone is free to leave the group at any time."
Jane Doherty says she did leave Tvind — just in time.
I felt, personally, that I had lost myself entirely, and was about to, sort of, sign over my whole life to them.
She's now warning others to stay away from anything connected to Tvind — including Planet Aid.
that supports a lifestyle that is manipulative and mistreating of young people.
You can see Planet Aid's complete response to our investigation by going to our website — myfoxdc.com.
As for Pedersen, the Danish government charged him with tax-fraud and embezzlement in 2002.
But he vanished during his trial.
Danish authorities say if they ever get their hands on Pedersen again, he will be prosecuted. Shawn, Brian?
Alright, Tisha, thank you. You see those boxes everywhere. You know, it's good to be well-informed.