Guatemala City , Guatemala ( CNN ) -- In a country where 20 % of people live on less than a dollar a day , Richard Grinnell is doing his level best to help the impoverished people of Guatemala . Grinnell runs an American charity here called Helps International , which arranges medical procedures done by American doctors and provides stoves to the poorest of the poor . So when he heard that 15 small American charities that have nothing to do with foreign aid claimed to have sent $ 40 million worth of medicines to Guatemala in a single year , he was surprised , to say the least . Grinnell said his charity runs 15,000 clinics throughout Guatemala at a cost of about $ 300,000 a year . `` Any charity that spends even a million dollars a year would be huge , '' he said . Documents obtained by CNN show that Charity Services International , a private South Carolina company , claimed to have shipped nearly $ 40 million in medicines and other donations on behalf of 15 small charities to Guatemala in 2010 . Those same charities also reported sending another $ 10 million to Guatemala the next year . According to its tax filings , one of those American charities , The Breast Cancer Society of Mesa , Arizona , claimed to have shipped $ 22 million of donations by itself in 2010 . But a joint investigation by CNN , the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting could find no trace of even a fraction of those donations . CNN traveled across Guatemala to find these medicines , starting with the Order of Malta , which was listed as the biggest recipient of Charity Services International 's alleged donations . All the American charity donations were funneled through the downtown Guatemala City office of the Order of Malta , a centuries-old charity with links to the Catholic Church that is accorded diplomatic status by some countries . At the downtown building listed as the Order of Malta 's headquarters , a building manager said it had been five years since the Order of Malta had offices there . Inside another office building with an impressive sign saying it was the `` Embassy '' of the Order of Malta , an assistant said no one was inside . About an hour 's drive outside the capital , a guard stood outside a gated iron fence with a sign for the Order of Malta . The guard said the fence surrounded a warehouse with donated medicines , but he refused to allow CNN access . A spokesman for the Order of Malta , Enrique Hegel , later told CNN that it received two or three shipments a month in 2010 and 2011 from American charities , `` depending on the season . '' He would not respond to other questions . Robert Gramajo , who signed for some of those donations in 2010 and 2011 , said he never saw any dollar amounts listed for the goods he received . He also told CNN that the Order of Malta closed a clinic that had offered free mammograms for Guatemalan women in 2011 because there were no funds to continue its operation . Gramajo , who said he left the Order of Malta two years ago , now operates his own charity . What 's this all about ? Charity watchdog groups said some American charities want to impress potential donors and therefore claim huge amounts of dollar values in medicines and other goods shipped abroad to poor countries . In reality , these charities send small amounts of goods and state regulators say they inflate the values time and time again . Roy Tidwell , CEO of Charity Services International , declined to say what precisely comprised the millions of dollars of goods sent to Guatemala , citing confidentiality for his clients . But he said in an e-mail that all the donations were valued by the charities and not by his shipping office . That 's not so , according to a spokeswoman for the Breast Cancer Society , one of the 15 small charities that donated items to Guatemala through Charity Services International . Spokeswoman Kristina Hixson said it was Charity Services International that provided all the valuations . Hixon also said Breast Cancer Society had `` amended '' some of its IRS filings to eliminate $ 12 million worth of claimed donations to Guatemala . In addition , she said the Breast Cancer Society had given `` $ 36 million of medicines and supplies to those in desperate need '' to other Central American countries and to West African nations . Tampa Bay Times ' charity checker . Back in the Guatemalan countryside , Richard Grinnell said he has never even heard of the Order of Malta nor any of the American charities that claimed to have donated millions and millions of dollars ' worth of supplies . People in rural parts of the country , he said , are so impoverished that even a few dollars a day more and free medicine would mean the world . The huge donations claimed by these American charities , he said , just do n't happen in his world . Center for Investigative Reporting : More on this story . Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET . For the latest from AC360° click here .
Documents uncovered by CNN show $ 40 million in donations to Guatemala . Score: 6 `` Any charity that spends even a million dollars a year would be huge , '' aid worker says .