When SVT's Umeå-based consumer editorial staff reviewed Rive law firm in 2019, it became clear that many clients were dissatisfied and felt cheated. The Consumer Ombudsman then sued the agency and in a judgment from 2020, Rive was threatened with a fine if the company continued with unclear price information.
Rive eventually went bankrupt in 2021.
Planned revenge
Documents from within have now gained access to thousands of leaked recordings of internal phone conversations between Rive employees. These show, among other things, that founder Richard Olsson planned a revenge against Umeå journalist Nils Pejryd, who was behind SVT's investigation.
"He's been with my company," he says in one of the recordings.
Richard Olsson claims in the talks that he will make Nils Pejryd and his family "completely poor" within a year. However, Nils Pejryd states today that they have not been significantly affected financially.
CEO threatened
The CEO of the review site Reco also tells Dokument from the inside that he has received threatening pressure from Rive, in order to influence the agency's reviews - something that TV4 was the first to reveal. A security company assessed the threat to him and his family as so serious that they had to leave their home for a period.
When Richard Olsson is interviewed by Dokument from inside today, he emphasizes that he has never threatened anyone and that Rive was handled in a legal way. Something he also talks about in the recorded internal phone calls regarding the plans against Nils Pejryd and his wife, who run the company:
"At least their store won't have a good reputation. It is not illegal to speak ill of a store in Sweden, I have checked that. Defamation against companies is actually completely legal," he said in a conversation.
See Documents from within: Shameless Wednesday 31 May 20.00 on SVT 1 or on SVT Play.
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