Doris Hopp

Who was Doris Hopp?

Doris Hopp was a Swedish brothel madam who organized a network of call girls in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1970s. She was arrested on pimping charges in 1976. A police investigation soon revealed that many of Hopp's customers were well-known politicians and other dignitaries.

In November 1977, the newspaper Dagens Nyheter published allegations citing Justice Minister Lennart Geijer as one of Doris Hopp's customers. The newspaper claimed as its source a classified report in which the chief of police Carl Persson had informed Prime Minister Olof Palme of the involvement of politicians in the prostitution scandal. At the time of the scandal broke, it was legal to pay for sexual services, but the fact that politicians socialized with prostitutes was viewed as a security risk as staff from foreign embassies were also reported to frequent the brothel.

Prime Minister Palme strongly denied the allegations, accusing the newspaper of aggravated libel. The newspaper was forced into a retreat and two days after the publication Lennart Geijer received an official apology. Years later, it emerged that a few minor details aside, the newspaper's assertions had in fact been largely correct.