For ten years, lawyer Amira Smajic was an adviser to criminals in Denmark. She helped them, for example, with money laundering and cheating with environmental certificates. But two years ago, she contacted the Danish television channel TV 2 and offered to be their mole.
In a brand new office, equipped with hidden cameras, she helped the journalists map professional criminals and their interaction with top lawyers and businessmen.
TV 2 and Amira Smajic had an agreement which meant, among other things, that she herself was not allowed to participate in criminal activities.
During the course of the documentary recording, Smajic handed in an empty dictaphone. The journalists managed to restore the content of the audio files after suspicions that Smajic did not fully comply with the agreement. The content then strengthened the journalists’ thesis. They also later learned that she ran a completely different office alongside the bugged one.
Several police reports
Before the journalists confronted Amira Smaijc with the information, she withdrew from the collaboration and tried to stop the documentary. According to her, she feared for her own safety. But after a court decision, TV 2 got the right to broadcast the program.
According to her lawyer, Amira Smaijc has now gone underground.
Since the documentary was published in Denmark and Norway, among others, a lawyer, a property developer and a high-ranking businessman have been reported to the police.
The Danish government called the parties in the Folketing to a meeting due to the documentary’s revelations.
Criticism of TV 2
But TV 2 has also received criticism for its method, which is said to facilitate new crime. TV 2’s news manager Ulla Pors defends the method:
– It is our assessment that Amira Smajic in her work for TV 2 does not initiate criminal acts that would otherwise not have occurred with great probability, she tells TV 2.
See The Black Swan on SVT Play or Sunday at 22:00 in SVT 2.