Hey, I am Mike Dellatte.

For over six months now, I've been running an independent journalistic investigation. Not that I'm a professional journalist, mind you. Hell, I'm not even a proper investigator.

But one day I stumbled onto a story that seemed juicy enough to start asking questions. Answers led to more questions, the cast of characters kept growing, and the whole thing snowballed to the point where I finally thought: damn, this is a book.

So that's exactly what I'm doing now: writing it.

Fair warning: don't expect the full plot, every little detail, or (God forbid) the ending. You'll have to wait for the book for that, though I might let slip a thing or two every now and then, or treat you to a little something if the mood strikes.

For now, think of this site as an extended foreword and a field guide to the characters of the upcoming book.

Here you'll meet the people and companies that play leading, supporting, and occasionally wildly unexpected roles. There'll be individuals. There'll be legal entities from different countries. And, regrettably, there'll even be some companies whose very existence turned out to be a separate and thoroughly entertaining chapter of my investigation.

Every profile, quote, and fact you see on this site is drawn from actual documents. I'm not touching up anything for my characters. Quite the opposite: sometimes they do a brilliant job of characterizing themselves in their own presentations, emails, papers, and public statements.

I'll start with the three central characters: Sheikh Saud Abdulaziz F. A. Al-Thani, Dr. Henrik H. Christiansen, and Malte Liedtke.

Under each name I'll include the description straight from their own presentation. That's not my take on them. That's how they chose to present themselves.

Of course, three characters do not a cast make. Over time, each will get their own page, and a web of related people, companies, projects, and events will start to form around them.

As for the order in which all this rolls out, that's my call. An author's got to have a few privileges, after all.

Alongside this website, I'll be keeping a small blog and sharing updates on the book's progress over on Twitter. That's where you can track new developments, meet the newest characters, and keep up with everything happening around this story.

One more thing, and it's non-negotiable. This site isn't meant to be a monologue. So every character in this book, person or company, will always have a space here for a comment, a clarification, or their own version of events.

If a comment comes in, it'll appear right next to the relevant material. If questions were sent but no response followed, that'll be honestly noted as well.

I'm not planning to draw any final conclusions here. For one, they belong in the book. For another, it'd be plain silly to spoil the plot of a story I've been digging into for over six months. Every fact published here comes from documents, public statements, correspondence, or first-hand accounts. I'm not making any of this up.

But, of course, I can't exactly stop an attentive, curious reader from drawing their own conclusions from the documents and facts that come to light.

So, make yourselves comfortable.