The chairman of Oxfam International has been arrested as part of a corruption probe in Guatemala.
Juan Alberto Fuentes Knight, a former finance minister in the country, was detained along with former president Alvaro Colom as part of an investigation into a purchases of public buses made during his time in charge.
The development comes after it was revealed Oxfam workers in Haiti had paid victims of the 2010 earthquake for sex as part of a ‘full-on Caligula orgy’.
Juan Alberto Fuentes Knight, chairman of Oxfam International and former finance minister of Guatemala, was arrested in Guatemala City on Tuesday
Knight was detained as part of a Guatemalan corruption probe into purchases made on behalf of a public bus company while he was minister
Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima said: ‘Oxfam does not yet know the nature of formal charges, if any, against Dr Fuentes Knight.
‘However he has been entirely open with his Oxfam board and executive that he has been among former officials being investigated as part of a budgetary transaction made by the Guatemalan government while he was finance minister.
‘He has assured us that he has co-operated fully with the investigation in the confidence he did not knowingly transgress rules or procedures.’
In 2009 then-President Colom announced a partnership with the National Bank for Economic and Social Development of Brazil to buy 3,150 new buses.
The government invested £27million in subsidies for the vehicles, but only 455 ever arrived, according to Euro News.
Auditors later found there was no formal oversight of the subsidies given by the Colom administration.
Fuentes founded the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies before becoming minister of finance between 2008 and 2010.
He was appointed Oxfam International head in 2015, which the charity said at the time would make it ‘more global, stream-lined and influential’.
Police arrested Knight alongside former president Alvaro Colom (pictured) on Tuesday
Oxfam said it is not aware of any formal charges against Knight, but said he has been transparent with them over the investigation
In a tweet this week, Fuentes Knight spoke out about the actions of the Haiti aid workers, saying: ‘I condemn the actions of the Oxfam group in Haiti in 2011.’
‘This represents a blow to the actions of good people working for Oxfam with whom I identify, who have provided support to disaster victims and injustice.’
A leaked Oxfam report into the sex scandal details how workers, stationed at a £1,200-a-month villa in Port au Prince, threw sex parties with local prostitutes.
Some of the girls were said to be aged under 16. Prostitution is illegal in Haiti, as is having sex with someone under the age of 18.
The charity was allegedly aware of concerns about the conduct of two of the men at the centre of the allegations when they previously worked in Chad.
Roland van Hauwermeiren, 68, the charity’s former director in the country, was also accused of inviting prostitutes to his flat rented by Oxfam.
The organisation was also accused of covering up evidence as the Charity Commission said it had never been shown the specific allegations of sexual abuse mentioned in the 2011 investigation report.
Mr Hauwermeiren was allowed to resign the same year, just a week after an internal investigation was announced.
Knight’s arrest came as the charity faces a public and political backlash after it was revealed senior aid workers paid victims of the 2010 earthquake for sex at orgies
Some of the girl involved in the orgy were allegedly under 16 and Oxfam has now been ordered to hand over any evidence it has to law enforcement agencies and name the accused
In total three Oxfam employees were allowed to resign and four were sacked for gross misconduct after an internal investigation
The revelations led to widespread condemnation of the charity, and demands that executives explain themselves.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has since ordered Oxfam to send all the evidence of alleged criminal behaviour by its staff to a host of law enforcement agencies.
Senior figures at the charity, including chairman Caroline Thomson and chief executive Mark Goldring, were also summoned to a meeting with Miss Mordaunt where they made a ‘full and unqualified apology’ to Britain and Haiti.
‘They spoke of the deep sense of disgrace and shame that they and their organisation feel about what has happened, and set out the actions they will now take to put things right and prevent such horrific abuses happening in future,’ she said.
‘In the 21st century, it is utterly despicable that sexual exploitation and abuse continues to exist in the aid sector.
Oxfam’s country director there was Roland van Hauwermeiren (pictured), a Belgium national who has worked for the charity for many years. He admitted using prostitutes at a different villa but denied involvement in the ‘Caligula orgy’
Widza Bryant (pictured), a former Oxfam worker in Haiti, said she flagged concerns and was ignored
‘Oxfam assured me they are cooperating fully with the authorities in Haiti and will do so in any other country where abuse has been exposed.’
Separately, Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s ambassador to the UK, said his country is ‘shocked and appalled’ at the charity for allowing senior staff to leave the country without being investigated by local police.
He warned that a paedophile ring might have been operating in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake and threatened to take legal action against Oxfam.
Penny Lawrence, deputy chief executive of Oxfam, was forced to quit her £99,000-a-year job after taking ‘full responsibility’ for the sordid behaviour of her staff.
She said she was ‘ashamed’ the alleged use of underage prostitutes took place ‘on her watch’ admitted that the charity ‘failed to adequately act upon’ concerns by whistleblowers.
Inside Oxfam’s £1,200-per-month ‘Caligula orgy villa’ where aid workers cavorted with prostitutes wearing the charity’s T-shirts
Boasting a 25ft swimming pool and a charming sun terrace, this is the luxury apartment block in Haiti where Oxfam aid workers cavorted with young prostitutes at a sex party likened to a ‘Caligula orgy’.
Terracotta walls, palm trees and floral arrangements give the gated complex the feel of a Mediterranean holiday villa.
The six-bedroom serviced complex, which can sleep 12, was rented to Oxfam for around £1,200 a month – an astronomical sum by Haitian standards.
Oxfam workers cavorted with prostitutes at a sex party likened to ‘Caligula orgy’ at a luxury apartment block in Haiti
The apartment block was rented out to Oxfam for around £1,200 – a huge sum by Haitian standards
The Daily Mail found the block in a rundown par of Haitian capital Port au Prince after three sources confirmed it was used for the alleged sex parties
The Daily Mail found it in a rundown part of Haitian capital Port au Prince after three sources confirmed it was used for the alleged sex parties.
Each of the rooms comes fully furnished so that aid workers do not need to buy their own furniture.
The complex – known locally as ‘the whorehouse’ – has a living room with a flat screen TV and three comfy seats with plenty of space for entertaining.
It was here that video footage was said to have been filmed showing aid workers partying with prostitutes who wore Oxfam T-shirts.
One source said at least five half-naked girls were running around at a ‘full-on Caligula orgy’. Such gatherings were referred to as ‘young meat barbecues’.
The villa comes with an armed guard as well a 12ft security gate with barbed wire on the top.
By contrast, some of the other houses in the area still bear the scars from the 2010 earthquake, which killed 220,000 and left 1.5million people homeless.
The hilly and chaotic streets are choked with pedestrians, traders and traffic. There are potholes everywhere and cars bounce around on the uneven surfaces.
The villa comes with an armed guard as well a 12ft security gate with barbed wire on the top
The complex – known locally as ‘the whorehouse’ – has a living room with a flat screen TV and three comfy seats with plenty of space for entertaining
On the street, the traders try to scratch out a living selling rice, eggs and beans from sacks supplied by aid agencies.
A Haitian woman wearing dirty jeans who was cooking meat on a grill in the street said: ‘I don’t think they should be doing that here. Oxfam were supposed to help people, not do this’.
Another local man added: ‘This shouldn’t have happened. This neighbourhood was really struggling after the earthquake.’
The villa sits in a densely populated neighbourhood called Delmas, which is home to 600,000. Locals said it was one of the worst affected places after the earthquake in 2010.
There was no electricity and the poor quality housing meant that more buildings collapsed than in other areas, causing more deaths.
Workers at the property confirmed that Oxfam staff used to stay there, as did a neighbour.
A former driver who used to work for Oxfam said: ‘I left before all this came out, but I heard there were lots of girls at these parties. They used to have girls up there all the time’.
Last night another source told the Mail: ‘This is where those Oxfam sex parties took place. They happened on more than one occasion and they weren’t very subtle about it.
‘I think they thought they could get away with anything. They nearly did.’
Abuse rife in BRITISH Oxfam shops: 123 cases of alleged sexual harassment and NO criminal record checks for 23,000 volunteers
The charity’s deputy Penny Lawrence (pictured) said she was ashamed and took full responsibility
The Oxfam scandal widened dramatically last night after claims of sex abuse spread to its charity shops.
A whistle-blower revealed that the beleaguered charity has faced multiple allegations, including alleged abuse of children by its volunteers.
And it emerged that Oxfam had not carried out criminal record checks on the 23,000 volunteers who staff its 650 shops. The Mail has seen figures showing that 123 alleged incidents of sexual harassment have been investigated in its stores in just nine years.
Helen Evans, the charity’s former safeguarding chief, said she had begged senior staff, ministers and regulators to act on sexual abuse allegations she had uncovered.
She also revealed that Oxfam staff had faced allegations of trading aid for sex, attempted rape, sexual exploitation, sexual coercion and abuse. A survey found more than one in ten staff from programmes in three separate countries had seen or experienced sexual assaults.
Yesterday the scandal, which began with revelations that Oxfam workers had used prostitutes in Haiti in 2011, claimed its first scalp.
The charity’s deputy Penny Lawrence said she was ashamed and took full responsibility.
Helen Evans, the charity’s former safeguarding chief, said she had begged senior staff, ministers and regulators to act on sexual abuse allegations she had uncovered
Figures seen by the Mail show that, over the past nine years, 268 ‘safeguarding incidents’ – allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse – have been reported by Oxfam.
Of these, 110 were abroad and 123 in the charity’s trading sector – its shops. Fifty-two incidents were recorded in charity shops in 2016/17 – suggesting the problem has got worse.
Miss Evans told Channel 4 News she was concerned ‘for those in senior leadership positions who knew the scale of what we were dealing with and in my view did not adequately respond to that’.
She told the programme that within a year of starting her work, the scale of the problem had become clear.
One case concerned a shop manager who is alleged to have attempted to force a young volunteer to drop charges against an adult male volunteer who was said to have assaulted them both.