On a warm morning in April, Ali woke up to find one shoe missing and felt a chill run through him. “I just remember feeling so cold.” Confused.
“Also, like no – someone’s not going to steal a shoe”. But in recent months, other things had disappeared too. Sweaters. An old phone. Small sums of money from around the flat. He looked in his wardrobe now. A jacket had gone. It made him feel seasick, he says, “off balance”.
The first time I met chef Ali it was to discuss a potential story about his restaurant. In June 2024, takings dipped when, out of nowhere, he received a glut of damaging Google reviews. “Hairs on my food,” the reviews said. Staff “were racist” – one star. I was interested in the power of anonymous reviews at a time of instability in the hospitality industry, but as Ali talked, it became clear that the reviews were only one chapter of a far darker story. One that involved blackmail, vengeance, the limits of police power, that single missing shoe and a whole year, stolen.
I’ve worked at newspapers for many years but I tend to write about culture rather than crime and was unprepared, when I started reporting on this story, for how much it would take over my life. I talked about it with my children. I messaged...
Chinese authorities have ordered major e-commerce platforms to remove 35 online stores operating under the name "Hong Kong Pharmacy" as part of a crackdown on fraudulent medical marketing, the Nati...