He Anonymously Threatened Lawmakers Reining in Shady Hospital Deals. Now He’s Been Arrested. |
Last week, authorities in Louisiana issued an arrest warrant for a businessman who they believe has run a vitriolic social media account that for years has harassed and threatened critics of America’s largest hospital landlord—Medical Properties Trust (MPT). Last year, Mother Jones and Reveal investigated MPT and found that its business model was sinking hospitals around the country and hurting patient care.
Our reporting also unravelled an extensive campaign to silence MPT’s critics. The effort included surveillance by private intelligence firms and a coordinated social media push by anonymous accounts who sent thousands of messages trying to intimidate journalists and analysts raising the possibility that MPT may be committing fraud, in part through complex loans it was secretly sending to prop up its biggest tenant and joint partner, Steward Health Care, as it flailed financially. (The now-bankrupt Steward paid for the private intelligence firms.) It is unclear which anonymous trolls were paid for by the intelligence firm, but chief among them was an X user who goes by “Abe.”
Louisiana authorities believe they have identified the man behind Abe as Delaware’s Bruce Tigani Jr. He is the son of a prominent attorney and worked at commercial real estate company Newmark until sometime in 2025. Delaware State Police confirmed to Mother Jones that Tigani was arrested in Wilmington on April 2 and charged as an out of state fugitive. He was then arraigned in local court and released on $5,000 bond. (Tigani did not respond to phone calls and an emailed list of questions.)
The warrant charges Tigani with a felony for making death threats on X as Abe against a Louisiana lawmaker, state Rep. Michael Echols. For the last three years, Echols has blamed MPT for the devastation at the hospital in his district, and tried to hold the company accountable by convening........