Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (9 page)

*
*
*

At that point, I had donated more than $75,000 to CAI. On March 23, 2004, I sent a fax to Mortenson
’
s office:

I have decided to suspend my financial support of CAI for the indefinite future. I didn
’
t make this decision lightly. After interviewing several of the people who recently left the board of directors I lost confidence in Greg
’
s accountability. I feel that I cannot continue to give such large sums of money (they seem large to me, at any rate) to an organization run with so little oversight and such lax accounting practices. It is possible that I may decide to support CAI again at some future date. But not until CAI has installed a strong, active board of directors who keep close tabs on how the organization is run. Make no mistake: I still believe in CAI
’
s mission, but I am made extremely uneasy by Greg
’
s way of running the show. Although I don
’
t want to make any public statements that would have a negative impact on Greg
’
s work, I no longer feel comfortable providing financial backing, or lending my name, to CAI.

Debbie Raynor, CAI
’
s chief financial officer at the time, remembers this missive well, because it matched her own experiences with Mortenson so precisely. When my letter rattled out of the CAI fax machine, she had been trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade Mortenson to document his expenses for the previous eight months. She had come on board as CFO in July 2003, and her duties soon expanded to include staff supervisor and board treasurer. By the summer of 2004, however, Mortenson
’
s conduct made it impossible for Raynor to continue working for CAI in good conscience. As she explained in a memo to the CAI board of directors,

there
were no meaningful financial policies or procedures in place when I started my employment. I endeavored to rectify that situation and bring about necessary and much needed financial controls
…
. These new policies were fully discussed and implemented with full approval by Mr. Mortenson. The staff readily complied with these new policies ensuring an accurate account of expenses. However, Mr. Mortenson has failed to comply in any meaningful manner with these policies
…
. Since the start of my employment, Mr. Mortenson has spent over $100,000 on CAI
’
s credit cards. Mr. Mortenson has never provided any receipts for these expenses, and repeatedly ignored my requests for their submission
…
. Mr. Mortenson has refused to submit even one travel voucher
…
. In order to allocate indirect expenses, it is imperative that I receive time sheets from all employees. Since March 2004, Mr. Mortenson has failed to submit a time sheet
…
.

On May 27, 2004, I again reported to the Board the serious situation as it related to overseas expenses. At that time, there was over $100,000 in unaccounted overseas expenses. Mr. Mortenson agreed to provide all documentation for overseas expenses. To date, he has not produced the promised documents in any meaningful manner. In fact, currently CAI has spent over
$270,000 in cash and wire transfers
[emphasis by Raynor] without proper documentation as to the disbursement of this money. There is no record to who ultimately received these monies or the manner in which it was spent.

Mr. Mortenson has reported that measures have been implemented to resolve the unsubstantiated overseas documentation; however, no specifics have been forthcoming.

In August 2004, I learned that information given to me to be placed in the Annual Report is untrue and therefore fraudulent.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mortenson has determined that he has no need of providing financial information to the CFO. These circumstances are untenable. I am unable to fulfill the duties
and responsibilities as CFO and Staff Supervisor. Thus, I had no alternative but to resign from CAI effective September 3, 2004.

*
*
*

Mortenson has not been shy about taking credit for the windfall CAI has received from his promotional efforts. He has been more reticent about acknowledging the millions of dollars that have flowed into his personal bank account along the way. It may surprise many people who have donated money to CAI, as it surprised me, to learn that CAI receives none of the proceeds from any of Mortenson
’
s books. All of the royalties from
Three Cups of Tea
are split equally by Mortenson and David Relin. All of the royalties from his other books are paid to Mortenson alone.

Although Mortenson concedes that CAI receives none of the proceeds from his books, in a press release issued on April 16, 2011, the CAI board of directors asserted,
“
Greg has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the organization, which includes a percentage of his royalties from his books, and worked for the organization without compensation for a number of years.
”
But such claims appear to contradict financial statements posted on CAI
’
s website. Nothing in the foundation
’
s financial records indicates Mortenson has ever donated anything close to hundreds of thousands of dollars to CAI, and the financial records of both CAI and the American Himalayan Foundation show, without question, that Mortenson has received a salary for his humanitarian work every year since 1995.

CAI supporters may be even more dismayed to learn, as I was, that although CAI receives no royalties from Mortenson
’
s books, CAI has paid virtually all of the expenses incurred by Mortenson, Relin, and at least some of his uncredited ghostwriters while they were researching, writing, and promoting the books. These expenses have included cameras, computers, writers
’
advances, and travel. When Mortenson has traveled domestically to promote his books in recent years, he has usually flown on chartered jets, and CAI has paid millions of dollars for these charters. CAI has also paid millions of dollars to run numerous ads to promote Mortenson
’
s books in upscale publications such as
The New Yorker
,
The Atlantic
,
Harper's
, and
The New York Times
.

Since the publication of
Three Cups
five years ago, Mortenson has made several hundred appearances to talk about CAI and his books. Presently, demand for Mortenson as a speaker is stronger than it
’
s ever been, and he is booked solid through the end of 2011. As Mortenson writes in
Stones into Schools
,

each
time I travel somewhere new, I am still shocked by the sheer number of people who flock to hear this tale. Last summer in Boston
…
the organizers of a talk I was giving at Northeastern University
…
booked me into a hockey stadium and filled the place with 5,600 people. A week later at a basketball arena in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 9,500 folks showed up and my speech had to be broadcast on a JumboTron.

Using CAI funds, Mortenson has purchased many tens of thousands of copies of
Three Cups of Tea
and
Stones into Schools
, which he has subsequently handed out to attendees at his speaking engagements. A significant number of these books were charged to CAI
’
s Pennies for Peace program, contrary to Mortenson
’
s frequent assertions that CAI uses
“
every penny
”
of every donation made to Pennies for Peace to support schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rather than buy Mortenson's books at wholesale cost from his publisher, moreover, CAI has paid retail price from commercial outlets such as Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Buying from retailers allows Mortenson to receive his author
’
s royalty for each book given away, and also allows these handouts to augment his ranking on national bestseller lists. (Had he ordered the books from his publisher, Mortenson would not have received a royalty, nor would bestseller lists reflect those purchases.) According to one of Mortenson
’
s friends, when he learned that Elizabeth Gilbert
’
s
Eat, Pray, Love
had bumped
Three Cups of Tea
from number one down to number two on the
New York Times
paperback nonfiction list,
“
Greg was furious. He started buying books like crazy, with the CAI credit card, to try and put
Three Cups
back on top.
”