Charity Navigator has become aware of the following information in connection with this charity:

• It has been alleged that the Central Asia Institute has exaggerated its programmatic accomplishments and that its Executive Director has received “excess benefits” from his relationship with the charity. For more information, please see the CBS News story.
• The Executive Director and Board have responded to these accusations here, here, here and here.
• The Executive Director also gave an in-depth interview to Outside which was summarized in The New York Times.
• The Associated Press has reported that Montana's Attorney General has launched an inquiry into the Central Asian Institute.
• Two people are suing the Central Asia Institute and its Executive Director, Greg Mortenson, alleging fraud, deceit and racketeering. For more information, please see the news coverage by USA Today. In June 2011, news sources reported that a similar lawsuite was filed in Illlinois. At the same time, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that one of the original defendants dropped out of the case and the lawsuit was modified. In September of 2011, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that the Central Asian Institute was dropped from the lawsuit although its founder, Greg Mortenson, was not.
• In response to the criticism about the charity's programmatic accomplishments, it has published a Master Project List. and created a blog.
• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, will no longer manage daily operations at the Central Asian Institute (which he co-founded) following earlier claims that he invented portions of the best-selling memoir and used funds from the Central Asia Institute to promote his books.

Charity Navigator, as an impartial evaluator of publicly reported financial information, takes no position as to the merits of the allegation(s) or issue(s), nor does it seek to confirm or verify the accuracy of such reports. However, Charity Navigator has determined that the nature of this/these issue(s) warrants making this information available so that donors may determine for themselves whether such information is relevant to their decision whether to contribute to this charity. (See How we decide to post a Donor Advisory).