Byrne, who has previously held ministerial posts in government and was recently reelected to parliament, did not respond to a request for comment. He has not publicly repeated the allegations against Perring, nor has he retracted them, but has denied accusations from Perring that he was paid to make the statement. OCCRP has not found evidence that he was.
However, leaked communications suggest that the parliamentarian’s comments were fed to him by an intermediary — who did appear to receive payment from Audere for his role in the affair.
The communications show that ex-MI6 intelligence officer Christopher Steele — the author of the controversial Trump-Russia dossier — engaged in discussions with Audere on March 2, 2023, about a written question Byrne should ask in parliament about Viceroy.
Audere provided the text of a proposed question on Viceroy to Steele, who later confirmed he had sent the question to Byrne with minor changes.
Members of parliament can submit written questions asking for information about the work of government departments, which are publicly recorded and answered. Byrne submitted a written question for the Treasury about the regulation of short-sellers two weeks before he made his oral comments in parliament. The written question was nearly identical to the one suggested by Audere, though it didn’t mention Viceroy directly.
Bank transaction records show that Steele received 29,000 British pounds from Audere in April 2023. There is no indication Steele violated any laws. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Lawyers for Audere denied that the company or its executives had paid Byrne to ask a question in parliament, but did not respond to queries on whether Audere had written such a question or paid Steele to send it to Byrne. The lawyers said they could not respond to detailed questions from reporters due to client confidentiality.
“Our client takes its legal and regulatory compliance obligations seriously and acts in accordance with the same,” they said. “Any suggestion to the contrary would be seriously defamatory of our client, as well as its senior leadership team.”
Paying More to Fund “Bull”
On March 1, 2023, a director at Audere, Monika Rihma, had an internal discussion about a plan for a person named “Liam” to raise an oral or written question in parliament about Perring and Russian short-selling attacks, leaked communications show.
The conversation described the plan to link Perring and Russia as part of “ongoing anti-Russia interference work” being carried out by Walsingham, a company that belongs to Steele, for which he would receive 30,000 pounds.
Rihma said that she would be happy to pay more to expedite the Perring plan, on top of “funding whatever bull :D.”
Two days later, on March 3, 2023, Byrne tabled the written parliamentary question, asking the Treasury about which regulatory agencies were responsible for protecting “defense-critical processor manufacturers” from short-selling attacks by hostile foreign states and short-seller campaign groups.
On March 16, 2023, Byrne took the floor in parliament to raise the issue. He made a stronger statement on the floor than in his written question, specifically calling for a debate on the activities of Viceroy and Perring — although he twice mispronounced Perring’s name, calling him "Pelling."
Byrne said he had been “told” that Viceroy was working with another short-seller, which he accused of launching a short-selling attack on British defense contractor Babcock International.
The member of parliament also alleged that Perring was “a not infrequent visitor to Moscow.”
“We must ensure that short-selling groups are not another weapon in Putin’s arsenal. Where there are links between short-selling attack groups and the Kremlin, we need to know,” he said.
The same day Byrne spoke in parliament, Audere’s founder, former British Army officer Charles Blackmore, wrote in an internal discussion that "the client" was happy.
He also asked for a video of Byrne’s comments to be sent to an executive at MPT, the real-estate investment trust that was Steward’s largest shareholder, according to communications obtained by OCCRP.
Neither Blackmore nor Rihma responded to requests for comment.
Leaked internal communications show that Blackmore was also in contact with Steward’s general counsel, Herb Holtz, after Byrne made his comments, and kept him abreast of further developments in the story. (Holtz had also been Steward’s point of contact for Audere employees running the wider campaign against the hospital chain’s opponents, OCCRP found in its previous investigation.)
In internal discussions about sending evidence of Byrne’s statement in parliament, Blackmore said that “Herb” had asked him: “No way they’ll trace it right?” and that he had offered reassurance.