Dallas-based Steward Health Care made six payments totaling just under $1.6 million this year to London-based Audere International, a commercial intelligence, investigations and security company, prior to filing for bankruptcy on May 6.
The payments were revealed in July 10 statement of financial affairs bankruptcy court documents filed by Steward and obtained by Becker's.
While the documents did not reveal the services provided by Audere International, the payments occurred from early February to early April and ran from $152,698 to $465,204.
Audere International's services include investigation into financial fraud and misappropriation solutions, asset tracing, cryptocurrency asset tracing, litigation and arbitration support, and supply chain fraud.
It also provides M&A intelligence, enhanced due diligence, strategic advisory, geopolitical and country analysis, and market entry due diligence and monitoring, according to its website.
This is not the first time that Steward has crossed paths with the company.
The health system also paid upwards of $7 million across a more than six-year period to Audere to conduct surveillance and disinformation operations against critics, which included a Steward employee, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a nonprofit publication, reported July 1.
News of Steward's payments to Audere comes as the health system deals with setbacks to auction off its assets, which include 31 hospitals and a physician group, Stewardship Health.
Most recently, UnitedHealth Group's Optum backed out of plans to acquire the group. The auction date for some of Steward's hospitals has also been delayed.
"The extension gives everyone involved time to develop robust bids," a Steward spokesperson said in a June 20 statement shared with Becker's.
Steward declined to provide Becker's with a comment regarding its payments to Audere International.