Leaked correspondence shows that Audere had control over the Twitter account and produced its content, which Blackmore personally reviewed. In one case, Blackmore said he had sent a proposed Twitter post to “HH” for review, an apparent reference to Herb Holtz.
In an internal discussion from July 2023, Blackmore described to his staff how a client he referred to as “Herb” was demanding that Audere conduct more “offensive false flag” operations against Perring, even though the firm felt it had done enough. “This guy is really under pressure,” Blackmore said, referring to a previous operation against Perring. “He is so offensively false flagged that he’s fucked,” he said at another point.
“For clarification, what is Herb expecting?” another employee asked.
“He is expecting us to say, ‘Ok, we’ve initiated the offensive false flag which we’ve said we’re going to do, which is essentially fingering him and Viceroy… Anyway, I’m still trying to hold off because I think we’ve got enough pressure on FP at the moment. But the client is paying the bills.”
Holtz did not respond to a request for comment, and Steward did not respond directly to questions on the intelligence work. However, in a comment to the Boston Globe, Steward said, “While general counsel and as a private lawyer since then, Holtz has neither recommended nor sanctioned any illegal or unethical activity.”
Perring later reported the @viceroyleaks account to police, who recorded a crime of malicious communications.
However, experts say a lack of regulation in the U.K. enables private intelligence firms to avoid scrutiny of their tactics, even as intelligence-gathering techniques traditionally used by state agencies are increasingly available on the private market.
“Private investigators are not currently subject to any specialist regulation,” Paul Dowling, a partner at U.K.-based law firm Leigh Day, told OCCRP.
Ilia Siatitsa, a program director and senior legal officer at the U.K.-based NGO Privacy International, said the U.K. has become a global hub of such companies.
“They operate without meaningful scrutiny or safeguards aimed at preventing abuse, and nothing is being done to reign them in,” he said.
A lawyer for Greyprism said its client “acts in accordance with the law” and “would not, and has not, acted in the manner alleged and in breach of its legal obligations.” Citing confidentiality, data protection, and legal privilege, the lawyer said Greyprism could not discuss specific cases, but said the company “does not conduct unlawful physical or technical surveillance.”
Investigating The Enemy Within
Audere was even enlisted to find dirt on Steward’s own staff.
A report dated April 2023 obtained by OCCRP included compromising personal information extracted from the company device of a former senior employee Steward worried might leak information to its auditor. The report’s author was a director at Audere, its metadata reveals.
