Rachid M'Barki from BFM suspended in scandal linked to disinformation firm
Among the material being circulated on social media, they especially noticed two television news reports in French that purportedly ran on BFM.
After checking with BFM's management, they had confirmation: the reports were shown late at night on the channel, but without the knowledge of the editorial team.
At that point, on January 11, M'Barki was called in and suspended.
The first of the reports was on the EU's Russia sanctions, and their impact on the luxury yacht business in Monaco.
It was claimed that 10,000 jobs were at risk and that the industry had appealed to Prince Albert to intervene on their behalf. None of that has been proved.
The second report, broadcast in mid-December, was about a leafleting campaign in Paris accusing a former state prosecutor in Qatar of corruption.
When originally shown in the early hours of the morning, the reports would have gone almost unobserved.
But that changed when they were picked up by social media and Team Jorge's massed avatars. Suddenly they were viral.
By seemingly planting the reports onto mainstream French television, the organisers would have immeasurably boosted the credibility of what would otherwise have been unsubstantiated gossip.
It also would mean Team Jorge had evidence for future clients of its access to western media.
M'Barki's late night show also ran items on a Sudanese general who was considering running for the presidency, and a trade show in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
In this second piece, the name of the territory was replaced by the politically-charged term Moroccan Sahara.
The area has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and the indigenous Sahrawi people, led by the Polisario Front.
The people or organisations that ultimately commissioned the suspected campaigns remain a mystery, according to Le Monde and Forbidden Stories.
Some may have been commissioned by governments, but most - like the yacht story - were probably ordered by private interests, the investigation concluded.
A worrying sign, the investigators say, of the growing "Uberisation" of the fake news business.