Greg Mortenson also faces claims that he grew rich on royalties and speaking fees based on the success of Three Cups of Tea.
He stands accused of using his Central Asia Institute as his "personal ATM" and failing to keep accounts properly.
His status as a humanitarian folk hero in the United States and consultant to the Pentagon on how to engage with Pashtun tribesmen – he has been known to zip around the region on the Black Hawk helicopters with US commanders – is now in doubt, after a report on 60 Minutes, the investigative CBS programme, picked apart his career.
In his book, Mr Mortenson claimed that on a descent from Pakistan's K2 mountain in 1993 he became lost and stumbled upon the village of Korphe, where the kindness of local residents inspired him to build a school.
Porters who walked with him however disputed that he had ever been lost and said he only visited Korphe a year later.
