On Greg Mortensen and the allegations against him

[FourScore]

...The allegations against Mortenson seem to break down into three parts: first is that “Dr. Greg” is a mythomaniac, who has embellished, exaggerated and downright lied in order to promote and enrich himself. The second is that he committed a series of financial improprieties, again with the goal or result of enriching himself. The third is that he ran a shoddy operation that wasn’t very efficient...

SNIP

...As for the financial mismanagement allegations, from the way I read the available information, CAI spent $1.7 million for Mortenson to travel around promoting CAI and his book, and CAI received $20 million in donations. That’s a pretty good return on investment if you ask me. We’ll leave it to the lawyers, accountants and the IRS to figure out how legal that all is.

But the crux of the allegations, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t about whether Mortenson is a terrible accountant: it’s whether he personally ripped off CAI funds to fly on private jets and vacation in Telluride – or worse. If Mortenson’s got a Caymen Islands bank account with millions of CAI contributions in it, he can go to jail. But I’m guessing that Mortenson has not been stealing pennies from schoolchildren to fly around on private jets because he likes the free drinks. Mortenson may have a number of strange and obstinate qualities, but from those who know him, venality doesn’t appear to be one of them. As Krakauer wrote, quoting former CAI board member Jennifer Wilson, sometimes Mortenson couldn’t even be bothered to reel in donations: “I would talk to people who expressed interest in making a sizable contribution,” Wilson said, “but when they tried to contact Greg he wouldn’t get back to them.”

Which leads to the mismanagement question, and the “ghost schools,” and finding ways to evaluate how effective Mortenson’s essential mission has been: to build schools in places where there are none, and especially to promote the education of young girls. My question is, “compared to what?” Madonna’s recent $15 million debacle in Malawi trying to build girls schools there? USAID’s efforts in Afghanistan? Other NGOs operating in Baltistan? I went to southern Sudan last year to document UN humanitarian relief efforts, and can tell you that efficiency is not at the top of the list of the programs’ best qualities. And nobody, not even Krakauer, is suggesting that Mortenson has run a phantom operation: there are many schools that are up, running, and educating kids in villages where he has worked. CAI still owes its donors an accounting of how many are functioning, and how many have failed...

http://danielglick.net/2011/04/whats-the-big-problem/

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. "But I’m guessing that Mortenson has not been stealing pennies from schoolchildren ..."

"...to fly around on private jets because he likes the free drinks."

I'm guessing he is/was and more. I have read that less than 50% of funds are spent on building schools and that your figure of 1.7 million is about million short in regard to how much money the CAI spends to promote Greg Mortensen.

[FourScore]

2. And you are basing that on...?

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. I base that on knowing many people that fly around on private jets

and the excellent work of Jon Krakauer.

Cheers!

[FourScore]

5. Krakauer's source says that he did not say the things Krakauer quotes him as saying...

Scott Darsney Questions the Accuracy and Fairness of "Three Cups of Deceit"

Greg Mortenson’s 1993 climbing partner on K2 defends the founder of the Central Asia Institute, maintaining that both 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer presented distorted portraits of the person he knows.
By Scott Darsney


Scott Darsney, the former climbing partner of Greg Mortenson, is speaking out in support of his onetime colleague. In an e-mail sent to Outside from Nepal--where Darsney has been in and out of contact since April 17, when the 60 Minutes broadcast on Mortenson aired--Darsney questions two factual points attributed to him in “Three Cups of Deceit,” Jon Krakauer's lengthy indictment of Mortenson, published by Byliner on April 18. In addition, Darsney's e-mail makes a more sweeping judgment about what he sees as a lack of context in recent attacks on Mortenson.

“If Jon Krakauer and some of Greg's detractors had taken the time to have three or more cups of tea with Greg and others--instead of one cup of tea with a select few who would discredit him--they would have found some minor problems and transgressions. But to the extent to call it all 'lies' and 'fraud'? No way.”

Darsney had just returned to Kathmandu from Nepal's mountainous Khumbu region last week to find the world of adventure philanthropy in an uproar. Krakauer used Darsney's testimony to support one of his central allegations: that key events in Mortenson's 2006 memoir, Three Cups of Tea, were “born of fantasy, audacity, and an apparently insatiable hunger for esteem.”

In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson wrote that, having failed to summit K2 in September of 1993, he became separated from Darsney on the way down from the mountain and stumbled into the Pakistani village of Korphe, where he was nursed back to health over a period lasting at least several days. Before he left the village, Mortenson promised to return and build a school...

http://outsideonline.com/adventure/travel-ga-scott-darsney-greg-mortenson-three-cups-of-deceit-response-sidwcmdev_155822.html

There are also those who take issue with the veracity of Krakauer's accounting of what happened in "Into Thin Air".

[FourScore]

6. EVERYONE is saying that Greg Mortenson is not the kind to live a jet-set lifestyle.

The CAI chartered a private jet for him to solicit donations and go on book tours. Like the OP says, they spent 1.7 million on it and brought in 20 million -- not bad.

[Phentex]

7. If what he wrote is true, I'd agree...

he claims to have lived out of a storage unit for a while. He seems like an odd duck to me, the kind who bumbles through life letting other people handle the details. When I read the first book, I questioned some of the incidents but I never questioned his goals. I guess people would feel better if he were still carrying all his belongings on his back.

[FourScore]

8. I also don't think that people have a full understanding of the region.

I would refer people to http://www.ikat.org/ -- Everyone should click the rebuttal links regarding these accusations against him. Those who have observed his work the closest say that the research done by Krakauer and 60 Minutes is completely flawed - even people they claim are their sources don't even agree with their conclusions.

[uppityperson]

3. "educating girls and young women in Central Asia (and elsewhere) is an important and commendable..."

"educating girls and young women in Central Asia (and elsewhere) is an important and commendable goal – and Mortenson has succeeded in doing just that. "