The latest scandal plagued memoir is Greg Mortenson's 1993 bestseller,
Three Cups of Tea. In the memoir, Mortenson alleges he got lost after a failed bid to climb K2 and stumbled into a remote Pakistan mountain village named Korphe, where the local villagers kindly nursed him back to health.
Mortenson founded the non-profit charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI), to help build schools in region. President Obama
donated $100,000 to the group from the proceeds of his Nobel Prize winnings.
The
60 Minutes report found porters that were on the failed expedition who say Mortenson never got lost on the descent from K2 and that he did not visit the village until an entire year later. The
60 Minutes report also
found the a large amount of CAI's funds are being used to promote Mortenson's books. Some of the schools the CAI was supposed to have built are also empty or were built by another party.
Greg Mortenson's publisher Viking is
reviewing the materials. Viking released a statement that said, "Greg Mortenson’s work as a humanitarian in Afghanistan and Pakistan has provided tens of thousands of children with an education. 60 Minutes is a serious news organization and in the wake of their report, Viking plans to carefully review the materials with the author."
The Montana attorney general has
launched an inquiry into Mortenson's charity, the Central Asia Institute.
Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer has a written account about Greg Mortenson and his charity, called
Three Cups of Deceit, which is available
here.
