Mahmood was the subject of BBC television "Panorama" investigation. "The Fake Sheikh Exposed", broadcast on 12 November 2014, was presented by John Sweeney and produced by Meirion Jones and Owen Phillips. The programme aired despite legal efforts by Mahmood to prevent recent pictures of himself being shown, and a request from the Attorney General to stop the broadcast. The programme included allegations that Mahmood's methods included payments to third parties who procured the drugs that his targets would later be exposed as supplying, and that he made offers of scarcely believable career opportunities to targets with no recent history of drug misuse, who were then pressured to obtain him cocaine.