Lars Findsen

Lars Findsen   (spook)
Born	17 September 1964
Nationality	Danish
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen
Head of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. Suspended in 2020 after spying on intelligence supervision board members, and withholding or lying about key information of other criminal activity.  Danish Defence Intelligence Service/Chief In office 2015 - August 2020 Preceded by Thomas Ahrenkiel Chief of Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste  Danish Police Intelligence Service/Chief In office 2002 - 2007 Chief of Politiets Efterretningstjeneste

Lars Findsen is a Danish civil servant and former chief of the Police Intelligence Service who was made head of the Danish Defence Intelligence service in 2015. He was suspended (with pay) in 2020 after the Danish Intelligence Supervision Commission had charged and his predecessor Thomas Ahrenkiel with illegal snooping and lying to the commission. In a media campaign, the case was downplayed into a limited hangout of leaking to journalists, and finally dropped in November 2023.

Findsen attended the Bilderberg in 2019.

Background

Findsen obtained a master's degree in law from the University of Copenhagen in 1990.

Career

Findsen worked as a clerk in the Danish Ministry of Justice until 1993. From 1995 to 1998 he was senior secretary and 2001-2002 head of unit in the same place. From 2002 to 2007 he was chief of the Danish Police Intelligence Service, where he was succeeded by Jakob Scharf. From 2007 to 2015 he was secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence. From 1991-2002, Findsen was an external lecturer in administrative Law at the niversity of Copenhagen.

Illegal Surveillance and Lying

In August 2020, Findsen was suspended (with pay) after the Danish Intelligence Supervision Commission had charged him and 3 others, including his predecessor Thomas Ahrenkiel, with spying on the supervisory board members, and withholding or lying about key and crucial information of other criminal activity, including illegal cooperation between the Defence Intelligence Service and the NSA to bug Danish fibre optic cables and Danish citizens without a warrant.

In 2020 the Intelligence Supervision Commission finished an investigation of the Defence Intelligence Service on the basis of material submitted by one or more whistleblowers. It concluded that

• Several times since the establishment of the authority in 2014 and until the summer of 2020 – in connection with, among other things, the authority's specific checks and meetings with the head of the authority – the Defence Intelligence Service (FE) has withheld key and crucial information for the authority and provided the authority with incorrect information on matters relating to the service's collection and disclosure of information.

• That at key parts of the FEs collection capacities there are risks that unjustified collection can be made against Danish citizens.

• That the submitted material indicates that FEs management has failed to follow up on or further investigate indications of espionage within the Ministry of Defence (implied by the NSA/CIA).

• That an inappropriate culture of extra-legality exists in FE's management and parts of the service.

• That the submitted material indicates that prior to the authority's establishment in 2014, FE initiated operational activities in violation of Danish law, including by obtaining and disclosing a significant amount of information about Danish citizens.

Disclosure of state secrets charges

In January 2022, it emerged that Findsen had been remanded in custody on December 8, 2021, five days before the commission of inquiry acquitted him and his two colleagues. His imprisonment occurred because of a charge of violation of paragraph 109 of the criminal code, on the disclosure of state secrets. In the case, four current and former employees of the police intelligence service (PET) and the Defence Intelligence Service (FE) were arrested and charged with leaking highly classified information. By august 2022, the charges against two of the other three accused had been dropped. In February 2022, Findsen was released and but still charged by PET and suspended from his job.

In October 2022, Findsen, in collaboration with journalist Mette Mayli Albæk, published the book The Spy Boss. Memoirs from cell 18, in which he gave his view of the case against him and the events that preceded it. The same month, the charges against Findsen were specified to the fact that he had disclosed state secrets to five people, among others.a. the former national police chief Torsten Hesselbjerg, who however denied having received state secrets.

In 2022, several newspapers linked the charges against Lars Findsen under Section 109 - treason - of the criminal code with a charge under the same section against former minister of Defense and former chairman of the Committee on Intelligence Services Claus Hjort Frederiksen. According to Berlingske Tidene, the case is only about how Findsen spoke to two journalists and four close associates.

On October 27, 2023, the Supreme Court rejected the prosecution's demand that the charges against Findsen not be made public. the 1st. November 2023, the prosecution dropped their charges against Findsen and Claus Hjort Frederiksen.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2019	30 May 2019	2 June 2019	Switzerland Montreux	The 67th Bilderberg Meeting
Munich Security Conference/2020	14 February 2020	16 February 2020	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers."

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