HispanicBusiness

Best-selling author, lecturer and philanthropist Greg Mortenson -- whose appearances in Sacramento in 2008 and 2009 for "Three Cups of Tea" were sold-out events -- is under siege in a big way. In part, by a fellow best-selling author.

After months of investigative work into Mortenson -- who's a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee -- and his global nonprofit charity, the Central Asia Institute, the April 17 edition of the TV news magazine "60 Minutes" aired a damning segment hosted by journalist Steve Croft (www. cbsnews.com). In it, it appeared that Mortenson may be responsible for "literary fraud" at the very least and possibly for the misuse of funds on multiple levels.

As part of the segment, mountaineer and best-selling author Jon Krakauer ("Into the Wild," "Into Thin Air") said of Mortenson's mega-selling memoir, "It's a beautiful story, and it's a lie."

Krakauer posted his own 89-page case against Mortenson -- "Three Cups of Deceit" -- on the startup publishing site www.byliner.com a week ago. The story was available as a free downloadable PDF for 72 hours; since then, it has been sold as a Kindle Single for $2.99. The proceeds will go to the STOP Girl Trafficking program at the American Himalayan Foundation.

By 5 p.m. Wednesday, more than 60,000 copies had been downloaded from www.byliner.com's site, founder John Tayman said from the company's San Francisco headquarters.

Mortenson would not sit for interviews with Croft or Krakauer. In prepared statements, he said, "I stand by the information conveyed in my book and by the value of CAI's work."

In "Three Cups of Tea," Mortenson recounts his 1993 ill-fated climb up K2, the world's second-highest peak after Mount Everest. When the expedition failed to summit, Mortenson became separated from the group and was in danger of dying. Somehow he descended the mountain and literally stumbled into a Pakistani village called Korphe. There, he was sheltered for seven weeks and nursed back to health.

During his convalescence, he writes, a village girl asked him, "Can you help us build a school?" He promised to return and do just that.

Since then, Mortenson has said, he has dedicated his life to promoting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan through his nonprofit CAI and Pennies for Peace. In his sequel book, "Stones Into Schools," he further describes how the CAI has gone on to build 141 schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the "60 Minutes" segment, Croft said that some of those schools had never been built, some were being used for storage, and funding had ceased for others.

Krakauer was an avid supporter of Mortenson and the CAI, donating $75,000 to it early on. But his support ended in 2004 over concerns that Mortenson was mishandling millions of dollars in donations.

"Jon didn't get around to reading 'Three Cups of Tea' until 2010 and became suspicious of events in the narrative," Tayman said. "He began looking into it (and 'Stones Into Schools') and asked '60 Minutes' to look into it, too. As Jon dug deeper, he realized there was more to the story than would be possible for '60 Minutes' to capture on one segment, so he continued to investigate (for us).

"He and '60 Minutes' certainly discovered a number of the same things, even working independently of each other. (For us) he was working on the story literally up until hours before we released it. We timed it so that it would reach a large audience in the wake of the '60 Minutes' piece."

Among Krakauer's allegations are that Mortensen told outright lies in both books, fabricating and exaggerating his stories.

"He has also misused millions of dollars donated by unsuspecting admirers," Krakauer said.

In the "60 Minutes" segment, Krakauer said, "Greg has become perhaps the world's most effective spokesperson for girls' education in developing countries. Now he's threatening to bring it all down by this fraud and his lies."

On April 18, Viking Press, which published "Three Cups of Tea," said in a statement, "In the wake of the '60 Minutes' report, Viking plans to carefully review the materials with the author."

Mortenson made several sold-out appearances in the Sacramento area in 2008 and 2009. "Three Cups of Tea" was the Sacramento Public Library's choice for its One Book Sacramento program in 2008. In One Book, the community is asked to read the same book and participate in events related to its theme.

As part of that program, The Sacramento Bee Book Club hosted "Three Cups of Tea" co-author and award-winning journalist David Relin (Mortenson was unavailable).

Before that standing-room-only event, held in the Central Library's Tsakopoulos Galleria, Relin said, "There aren't many stories you hear about that make you want to drop everything, but Greg's was one of the best. It was staggering and I had to tell it."