The Outlook Podcast Archive - Secrets & Lies: The undercover operatives

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In this episode of Outlook's Secrets and Lies series we're revisiting two astonishing stories from our archive about life undercover.

As a young woman Ieva Lesinska was faced with an agonising choice. To renounce her father as a traitor, or defect to the US and leave behind everything she knew in Latvia. Ieva says it was like she was living in a spy movie, and a film has now been made about her life, it's called: 'My Father, the Spy.'

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a trained lawyer-turned-investigative reporter in Ghana, and a frequent presenter of the BBC's Africa Eye. In his nearly 20 years working undercover, he's exposed judges taking bribes for a not-guilty verdict; top football officials for fixing matches; sex-trafficking rings; organ-harvesting operations. To do so, he had to disguise himself as a psychiatric patient, as a janitor in a brothel and even as a rock in a barren landscape. His work has led to numerous convictions, but his methods are sometimes dangerous and controversial.

Do you have a fantastic story involving a secret or a lie? We'd love to hear about it. Record a short voice memo or write an e-mail and send it to us at outlook@bbc.com. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Fiona Woods
Original story producers: Nathan Gower, Deiniol Buxton, Andrea Kennedy and Harry Graham
Music: Joel Cox

Published on Wednesday, 31st March 2021.

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