In March 2023, a member of parliament publicly questioned whether a prominent short-seller had ties to Russia. Leaked records suggest that the question was planted by Audere International, a private intelligence firm conducting a smear campaign paid for by Steward Health Care. A private intelligence firm working for a disgraced U.S. healthcare operator fed what appears to be false information to a British politician, leading him to claim in parliament that a well-known businessman was a Russian agent, leaked communications show. The politician, Member of Parliament Liam Byrne, made the comments in March 2023, as Texas-based Steward Health Care and U.K.-based private intelligence firms were running a multi-million-dollar smear campaign against the healthcare company's critics.
