Lawyers forced to leave their jobs, police reports, and investigations.
The Danish documentary series "The Black Swan" has not only shaken Denmark - it has also had consequences for a number of people who appear and are heard in the hidden recordings.
Mads Brügger, the journalist behind the investigation, could not imagine the impact the series would have.
You can say that we did a spot check on an office in Copenhagen. It could just as well have ended with us only catching small fish. Then the whole project would have ended up in the trash.
But that's not what happened. The contact with lawyer Amira Smajic, who posed as a mole, led to groundbreaking revelations about how Denmark's top layer collaborates with the underworld.
In summary, a doomsday picture is painted. It raises a question: Are these isolated examples or is the image of Denmark as Europe's least corrupt country misleading?
Lawyers reported to the police
The documentary has led to lawyers being reported to the police, one of them for possible involvement in money laundering. The Danish Bar Association has also initiated investigations, which may lead to them losing the right to practice as lawyers.
Several people have been fired, an entrepreneur has been banned from business for three years, and the list can be made longer.
According to Brügger, the underworld has also been shaken to its foundations.
There was total panic in the hours following the broadcast. All sorts of questions arose: Do I know someone who has been filmed? Can I hold a meeting with my lawyer without being filmed?
What Brügger has personally thought most about is Amira Smajic's real motives behind her participation as a mole. During the series, TV2 managed to restore a deleted recording that showed she was also hiding a secret.
The journalist in me is, of course, curious. I have some questions I want to ask, but I haven't heard from her. The contact was broken when she found out that we had this recording.
No suspicions
How she knew about the restored recording is a mystery to Brügger.
We're still investigating, but there are no suspicions whatsoever against anyone at TV2. It could be that she sensed a change in atmosphere and bluffed. But I don't think so. She's not that good at acting.
Has your trust in other people changed after the series?
It's clear that you wonder how many layers were involved in this. It's felt like living in a crime series, and this deleted recording has only reinforced the paranoia.
The Danish documentary series "The Black Swan" was broadcast on TV2 in Denmark at the end of May.
Since mid-July, the series has been available on SVT Play.
In the series, lawyer Amira Smajic participates as a mole, deciding to break with her old life and connections to large parts of the Danish underworld.
She poses as a mole for investigative journalists on TV2, who, with the help of hidden cameras, expose connections between Denmark's top layer and the underworld.
In a comment to TT, the Danish police write that they cannot comment on ongoing preliminary investigations and concrete operational measures as a result of the documentary.
