Intrigue

A new people smuggling boss is running routes into the UK. Who is he, and can his true identity be revealed? To Catch a Scorpion duo Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie investigate.

Crossing the road between interviews, Jenny receives the opportunity she has been waiting for. A chance to meet Julius Kivimäki and finally seek answers from him.

She heads to Turku prison in Western Finland, where Kivimäki is serving his sentence.

Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman.

Within a month of the Vastaamo data breach, Tomi Haustola, a Finnish stand up comedian, is on stage making jokes about it.

But Tomi himself is one of the thousands of victims. He tells Jenny how he went to Vastaamo because he was burnt-out and anxious and couldn’t tell anyone - except his therapist.

When he discovers a hacker had stolen his therapy notes, Tomi decides to share his story with the audience. Many of them are victims themselves.

But he doesn’t expect a letter to arrive for him, years after the hack, inviting him to view the trial of Julius Kivimäki, the man authorities suspected of being the extortionist ransom_man.

Bringing the case against him is the Prosecutor Pasi Vainio.

Kivimäki is defended by the lawyer who has been with him since the beginning - Peter Jaari.

Also present is Jenni Raiskio, the lawyer representing victims of the hack, making sure they are not forgotten amidst the TV cameras and photographers.

As Jenny follows the unfolding of the court case and the trial nears its conclusion, something happens that puts everything in jeopardy.

Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman.

Authorities think Julius Kivimäki could be responsible for the Vastaamo data breach and the leaking of patient records.

They want to bring him in for questioning, but he’s disappeared. Kivimäki is known to brag about his international lifestyle. He could be anywhere.

Jenny meets Pasi Vainio, the prosecutor who places Kivimäki on Europol’s Most Wanted List. Pasi takes Jenny through the evidence that he and his colleagues have painstakingly gathered, trying to figure out who is ransom_man.

What they find is shocking and surprising, and takes Jenny closer to home than she ever expected.

Through all of this, one man has stood by Kivimäki’s side - his lawyer, Peter Jaari. Jenny heads to Peter’s Helsinki office to see if he can provide any answers.

The search for Kivimäki leads to a confrontation that no one saw coming.

Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman.

ransom_man’s final post contained clues to his identity. In those clues, former cybercrime detective Antti Kurittu recognises similarities to of the biggest hacker he ever investigated, a Finnish teenager called Julius Kivimäki.

So who is Julius Kivimäki, and could he be the person who held a nation’s darkest secrets to ransom?

Jenny’s search for answers leads her away from Finland, to meet a man in Illinois named Blair. Blair grew up in the hacking scene, and his time in the same circles as Kivimäki would shape his life forever.

Blair found himself at the centre of a vicious online feud that spilled into the real world. It began with an unexpected takeaway delivery and ultimately put his and his family’s life in danger.

Jenny explores how Julius Kivimäki became a globally notorious hacker - his name has been linked to grounding of a plane with a hoax bomb threat, the targeting of elite universities and multinational corporations, and perpetrating tens of thousands of hacks. But was Vastaamo among them?

Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman.

After a shocking data breach at the Finnish psychotherapy service Vastaamo, a nation’s secrets are being held to ransom by a faceless hacker. Jenny Kleeman traces the story.

After negotiations with Vastaamo fail, ransom_man begins publishing 100 patient records a day on the dark web. He posts a link to the records on popular sites like Reddit and Ylilauta, Finland’s version of 4chan.

He ends the post with one word. “Enjoy!” .

Finland is a nation in panic.

One victim, Meri-Tuuli, heads to the dark web to find out if her notes are among those published, and is appalled by what she sees.

But after a few days, the hacker does something that no one could have foreseen.

Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman.

A shocking data breach at a Finnish psychotherapy service. Jenny Kleeman traces the story of a nation’s secrets held to ransom by a faceless hacker.

This is what happened to Tiina, a Headteacher living near Helsinki. When decades of stress and anxiety overwhelmed her, she sought support through a therapy service called Vastaamo.

Vastaamo was accessible, affordable, and a national success story. But in September 2020, the company received an email from a hacker claiming to have stolen their entire patient database - including therapy notes.

Antti Kurittu is the cybersecurity specialist tasked with saving the secrets of 33,000 patients, but can he and the police find a way to stop this hacker, who calls himself ransom_man?

Before long, Antti, Tiina and a whole nation learn just how far he is willing to go.

Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman.

What would you do if your deepest secrets were held to ransom? Jenny Kleeman investigates one of the world's most audacious hacks.

When a shocking data breach takes place at a Finnish psychotherapy service, the nation's darkest secrets are held to ransom by a faceless hacker. He calls himself ransom_man.

We all have some thoughts we'd never write down. Now, just imagine that a criminal had got hold of those thoughts, and was threatening to publish them for all the world to see if you didn't pay to stop him. Jenny finds out what kind of person is prepared to terrorise a nation like this, and the lengths people will go to fight back. On the way, she'll discover that the origins of this dark crime stretch far beyond Finland. Her extraordinary quest leads her around the world and to unexpected places, bringing Jenny face to face with victims, investigators, police and notorious hackers themselves.

It is a cautionary tale about something that could happen anywhere, to any of us, again and again.

A dark, cold morning in February 2025. Hundreds are filing into the Museum of the Bible - evangelical leaders, gospel singers, and over 30 members of Congress including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. They've gathered just three blocks from the US Capitol for an annual event of fervent prayer about what they see as America's most pressing problems.

Meanwhile, journalist Ben Lewis explores how an institution that once dreamed of becoming a centre for biblical scholarship has transformed after losing some 17,000 artefacts - nearly 40% of its entire collection.

Through revealing interviews with museum officials and its critics, Ben traces the extraordinary journey of the Museum of the Bible - from the Green family's ambitions to make Washington, DC a centre for biblical scholarship, to the devastating revelations of forged Dead Sea Scrolls fragments and thousands of problematically sourced artefacts. Yet despite these setbacks, the museum has found new purpose as a convening space for a movement that wants to make evangelical protestantism the moving spirit of America’s future.

As Ben explores exhibits that present a selective view of religious and American history, he discovers how the museum bridges faith and politics. While its staff insist there's no religious agenda, events hosted within its walls blend prayer with political messaging. Through conversations with scholar Roberta Mazza and journalist Katherine Stewart, Ben examines how museums shape our understanding of history through what they choose to display - and what they leave out.

This final episode reveals how the Museum of the Bible has quietly evolved into something more significant than just a repository of ancient artefacts - a platform for reimagining America's past to shape its future.

Presented by Ben Lewis

A TellTale production for BBC Radio 4

In April 2019, Dr Roberta Mazza receives an email from an academic in charge of Research at the Museum of the Bible which leads to the exposure of one of the most extraordinary breaches of trust in biblical scholarship. Through exclusive interviews, Ben Lewis reveals how the Museum of the Bible discovered that precious gospel fragments they had purchased for hundreds of thousands of dollars may have been stolen from a collection at Oxford University.

The episode follows the museum's quest to verify their collection's legitimacy, leading to a devastating discovery that a renowned Oxford professor had allegedly been selling artefacts that weren't his to sell. From papyrologist Roberta Mazza's early suspicions to the museum's internal investigation, Ben pieces together how an elite scholar's apparent betrayal came to light.

As evidence mounts, the story builds to a dramatic doorstep confrontation, where Ben attempts to get answers from the professor at the centre of the scandal - raising profound questions about the intersection of academia, wealth, and the ownership of sacred texts.

Presented by Ben Lewis

A TellTale production for BBC Radio 4