New Investigation Live — The Louvre Crown Jewels

Field Notes.

Dispatches from our editors. Case analysis, investigative deep-dives, and tracking notes on the scandals our books expose — published when there's something worth saying.

Fraud Empire · Long Read

Why we still don't know where Ruja Ignatova is — and why that matters.

Eight years after the Queen of Crypto vanished from Sofia airport, the FBI added her to its Top Ten list. Three months later, a Bavarian forensic accountant traced $400 million to a Guernsey trust she allegedly never closed.

CASE TRACKER · OPEN
Last Sighted
Athens, 2017
Filter by Collection:
FN / 046
Heist Legends
Heist Legends · Case Note

The Louvre Job: 22 minutes that exposed every museum on Earth.

Inside the four-man crew, the cherry picker, and the perimeter-security failure that wasn't really a failure at all.

Isabella Romano 9 min · Nov 24
FN / 045
Black Files
Black Files · Update

Havana Syndrome: what the 2026 Pentagon disclosure didn't say.

The DoD's redacted summary listed "anomalous health incidents." The annexes — which we obtained via FOIA — list directed-energy frequencies.

Victoria Cross 11 min · Nov 19
FN / 044
Scandal Chronicles
Scandal Chronicles · Analysis

Sean Combs' empire never sold music. It sold proximity.

A reading of the indictment as a corporate filing: the parties, the NDAs, the chain of custody, and what the federal RICO charges actually accuse him of building.

Elena Ravenna 13 min · Nov 12
FN / 043
Fraud Empire
Fraud Empire · Field Note

Bankman-Fried's appeal failed. The custody question hasn't.

The Second Circuit upheld the 25-year sentence in October. But the unanswered question — how FTX's segregated accounts were technically commingled — still isn't in any court filing.

Gregory Mason 10 min · Nov 06
FN / 042
Scandal Atlas
Scandal Atlas · Long Read

Qatargate, two years on: the brown bags, the silence, and the seven names still under investigation.

Belgian prosecutors reopened three files this autumn. None of the suspects are in jail. All of them, on paper, are still members of the European Parliament's circle.

Henrik Vance 16 min · Oct 30
FN / 041
True Crime
True Crime · Case Note

Kohberger took the plea. The four families didn't get the answer they wanted.

Why prosecutors accepted four life sentences instead of pursuing the death penalty — and what the sealed evidence still tells us about the night of November 13, 2022.

Sarah Bleak 12 min · Oct 22