Muckraking British Journo Goes Undercover to Ensnare Celebs

By: His stings have ensnared royalty, pop icons and sports stars. Disguised as a wealthy Arab sheik, Mazher Mahmood would lure celebrities into whispering confessions on luxury yachts over champagne -- then spill their secrets to the world.

But after a decade of front page scoops, Britain's most famous investigative reporter is himself in the media glare.

"The Fake Sheik" claims to have broken over 500 exclusive stories, and his tabloid weekly, The News of the World, says his stings have led to 200 convictions, including fraudsters and immigration racketeers.

To critics, however, Mahmood is a rogue journalist who goads victims into committing crimes or tricks them into divulging misdeeds.

This month, Mahmood found his credibility damaged when three men he claimed to have caught trying to embark on a terrorist plot were acquitted by a jury after one of his sources turned defense witness and testified he had been paid to set up earlier stings.

In many ways, Mahmood is a product of the industry that has made him a superstar.

The British newspaper market has long been one of the most competitive in the world, and the rivalries here are becoming increasingly intense as the Internet siphons off readers.

The pressure has been particularly acute for the mass-market tabloids -- known here as the "red top" press because of their crimson mastheads -- which are taking big circulation hits, said media commentator Roy Greenslade.

"It's desperation -- pressure to survive," Greenslade said. "The red tops are losing circulation faster than any other sector. Not that people are turning their backs on the sleaze. People are just going elsewhere for their news."

Rupert Murdoch gained his foothold in British media in 1969 when he acquired the News of the World, and the paper, with a circulation of some 3.5 million, exemplifies Murdoch's successful mix of sex and sensation.

But with the pressure on to be the last man standing in the tabloid market, the newspaper has found itself locked into a series of embarrassing criminal and court cases.

Last week, police investigating alleged eavesdropping on officials in Prince Charles' office arrested the paper's royal editor, Clive Goodman, and charged him and another man with conspiring to intercept phone messages .

The newspaper declined to comment on the allegations of impropriety by Mahmood or provide a list of the 200 criminal convictions it claims he brought about. Efforts to reach Mahmood through the News of the World and other channels were unsuccessful.

One of Mahmood's most famous scoops was a 2001 sting involving Prince Edward's wife. Posing as an aide to a Saudi Arabian prince interested in hiring her public relations company, Mahmood charmed Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, into making indiscrete comments about the British government. She also was caught on tape describing Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, as "horrid, horrid, horrid."

Other Mahmood stings have caught British notables taking drugs, while stars, including rocker Mick Jagger, have been exposed as adulterers. Some operations led to the break-up of pedophile rings.

Things started to unravel for Mahmood in late 2002 following his exclusive report on an alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl and wife of soccer superstar David Beckham.

After the front-page scoop, police arrested five men -- but the case collapsed. Prosecutors dropped it when it became clear Mahmood's main informant, Florim Gashi, had been paid $18,500 and could not be considered a reliable witness.

Greenslade, a professor of journalism at London's City University, has long accused Mahmood of debasing journalism.

"I think you have a rogue journalist on a rogue newspaper," he said. "The truth is there have been too many occasions on which his stories have led to the same kind of accusations of entrapment by his victims.

"Firstly they are offered inducements and secondly they are goaded into something, by what I would call an agent provocateur," Greenslade said.

A colleague at the News of the World, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Mahmood acts independently from the rest of the newspaper's reporters. His enterprises involve a secret staff, with hidden cameras and intricate operations that cost thousands of dollars.

That Mahmood operates in the shadows is well known. To protect his identity from the next victim, his image is displayed only in silhouette by the News of the World.

But much information about Mahmood emerged in the recent terror trial, in which three men were charged with trying to obtain radioactive material to make a bomb.

Gashi, his one time informant, turned key defense witness. He testified it was Mahmood himself who devised the Victoria Beckham kidnap plot, asking him to get a gang together and persuade them to discuss an abduction.

"Maz said I would get ?10,000 ($18,750) and another ?5,000 ($9,375) if they got prosecuted," Gashi testified.

The News of the World came to Mahmood's defense, saying its star investigator had acted properly and that investigations with "clear public interest" would continue.

Despite the setbacks, even critics predicted Mahmood will not be hanging up his disguise.

"I have no doubt the fake sheik's robes have just been sent to the cleaners and they will be on his back again soon," Greenslade said.