Conservative peer Michelle Mone admits involvement with ‘VIP lane’ PPE company

Controversial: Politics & Govt Politics & Govt: In The News
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Continuing the discussion from Tory peer Michelle Mone secretly received £29m from ‘VIP lane’ PPE firm:

Then:

The Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers, documents seen by the Guardian indicate.

The Guardian’s latest revelation – that the peer and her husband secretly amassed an offshore fortune on the back of PPE Medpro profits – could prove the most consequential for Mone, who has already been placed under investigation by the House of Lords commissioner for standards.

Separately, PPE Medpro has become the subject of a potential fraud investigation by the National Crime Agency. In April this year, NCA officers searched several addresses, including the mansion Mone and Barrowman occupy in the Isle of Man. At the time, lawyers for PPE Medpro declined to comment on the NCA investigation.

Lady Mone’s support helped the company, PPE Medpro, secure a place in a “VIP lane” the Conservative government used during the coronavirus pandemic to prioritise companies that had political connections. It then secured contracts worth more than £200m.

Now:

The Conservative peer Michelle Mone has acknowledged for the first time that she was involved with a company that was awarded government PPE contracts worth £200m during the Covid pandemic.

Lady Mone’s husband, Douglas Barrowman, has also acknowledged for the first time that he was involved in the company, PPE Medpro.

In November 2020, Mone’s lawyer asserted that “Baroness Mone is not connected in any way with PPE Medpro”. Barrowman’s lawyers repeatedly denied that he was an investor in the company or a consortium supporting it, and said he “never had any role or function in PPE Medpro”.

In December 2020, a lawyer instructed by Mone and Barrowman said “any suggestion of an association” between the Tory peer and PPE Medpro would be “inaccurate”, “misleading” and “defamatory”.

What a pair of self-serving, lying parasites … :angry:

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There’s no end to it, is there?

Were there any of them when faced with a deadly pandemic whose first thought wasn’t how they could feather their own nest out of it?

Scum of the earth :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15374472.pictures-inside-michelle-mones-luxury-home-shares-scots-billionaire-doug-barrowman/

Some nest:

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Some feathers:

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MM has other nests, of course, and a yacht bought with her “proceeds”:

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If you’ve got enough money you can buy anyone.The legal profession is as corrupt as the political establishment.

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Also, the government ignored the companies that actually made the ppe,instead, preferring to award the contracts to those in the vip lane who happened to be their Tory mates…

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To be fair Justice is blindfolded for a reason.

I must admit I would rather live in a house like hers than in a wooden house on a quarter acre block, nice and conveniently located though it may be

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Matt Hancock and Michael Gove have been interviewed by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of its investigation into a PPE company linked to Baroness Mone.

The former health secretary and current secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities are among a number of witnesses to whom the NCA has spoken in recent months as part of its long-running inquiry into PPE Medpro, a supplier of facemasks and medical gowns.

Others questioned by the agency include Lord Bethell, a former health minister, and Lord Agnew, who served as a minister in the Cabinet Office.

All were ministers during the Covid pandemic and were contacted by Mone, 52, as she attempted to secure government contracts for PPE Medpro and a second firm linked to her husband.

All four declined to comment but it is understood they were interviewed as witnesses and not under caution. There is no suggestion they were involved in any alleged wrongdoing.

The net is tightening … :thinking:

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It was billed as Baroness Mone’s big “fight back”. After two years of public silence, the Conservative peer and lingerie tycoon had given an interview explaining her involvement in a company that was awarded more than £200 million of government PPE contracts after she had lobbied ministers during the pandemic.

Close to tears, Mone admitted to film-makers that people probably see her as “a horrible person, a liar, a cheat, a thief” following media reports she secretly made a fortune from the firm, PPE Medpro, which is now under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Only the sharpest-eyed viewers would have noticed in the end credits that the documentary had been paid for by the company at the centre of the scandal, which is led by Mone’s husband, Douglas Barrowman.

This weekend, two experts who appear in it said they had not been told in advance of the focus of the film, or its funding. One leading doctor suggested he had been deliberately duped and would never have agreed to take part had he known it was “a platform for [Mone’s] self-defence”.

A senior social care expert said she was not told of Mone’s involvement until a fortnight ago and was never told of the PPE Medpro funding. She said she felt “disturbed” and would not have taken part if she had known. The documentary was broadcast online last Sunday and has been viewed more than 36,000 times.

It is the latest attempt by the peer and her husband to protect their reputation and silence their critics since the NCA began investigating allegations of fraud and bribery, which they both categorically deny.

Called The Interview: Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal, it was presented and produced by Mark Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey police detective and award-winning investigative journalist best known for an exposé of Jimmy Savile, the prolific paedophile broadcaster and DJ. Williams-Thomas claims in the film that Mone, 52, and Barrowman, 58, gave him “complete access” to their “criminal case files”.

When you’re worth billions you can wash yourself whiter than white with a professionally-produced self-serving documentary … it might even win an award or two … :roll_eyes:

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Michelle Mone has admitted that she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to the UK government during the pandemic by a company led by her husband, Doug Barrowman.

In an interview with the BBC, the couple apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.

But a defiant Baroness Mone said: “I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer. I can’t see what we have done wrong.”

She said her life had been “destroyed” by allegations about their PPE profits, even though “we’ve only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren’t involved”.

She said that was “not a crime” and added: “No-one deserves this.”

Baroness Mone said: “It’s appalling that over £9.1 billion was overordered, five years of stock, of PPE, when it only has a shelf life of two years. And all I will say, right now, is why are we not holding them to account, the [Department of Health]?”

She said that their lives had been “destroyed” by the media attention, and that the couple had been scapegoated by the government because they were “high profile and successful”.

The sheer gall and effrontery of this mendacious woman is unbelievable … I hope that both the Lords and the NCA bring suitable retribution upon her … :angry:

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Michelle Mone’s BBC interview was a spectacular own goal

Of all the astounding moments in Laura Kuenssberg’s interview there was one right at the end some viewers might have missed. You had to whack the sound way past 11 to catch it, but it was there.

Kuenssberg had thanked Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman for the sit-down. Baroness Mone of Mayfair nodded silently, almost regally, while her husband muttered “our pleasure”.

Our pleasure? Whatever else the encounter had been the body language of the pair did not shout “great to be here”. Going on national television to admit that you lied is never a good look.

But when you do so as begrudgingly as Baroness Mone did, and then try to make out it is you and your family who are the victims here, that raises the encounter to a whole new level of PR disaster.

Make no mistake: for Baroness Mone and her husband this interview was a train wreck with Christmas bells on.

On the same BBC1 show was Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, who spoke for many when he said: “I don’t know who thought it was a good idea for her to do that interview, but I don’t think anyone watching will be shedding any tears.”

Obviously, being a baroness has given Mone delusions of grandeur … :roll_eyes:

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She and her husband really are scum, aren’t they?

And she doesn’t get what she’s done wrong? Really? Or is it just that she doesn’t care and thinks her money should make her untouchable

I’m guessing she’s not so sympathetic when it comes to people on benefits lying to get a couple of bob extra?

Typical Tory

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Michael Gove ‘must urgently answer to MPs’ over Michelle Mone claims

Mone told the BBC that there had been a “call to arms” put out by government amid the mass search for PPE early in the pandemic, after which she had “made the call to Michael Gove”. At the time, he was the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour MP and a shadow Cabinet office minister, asks, in a letter to Gove, the Levelling up Secretary to appear before parliament to answer MPs’ questions, including on the process which Mone’s recommendation went through before contracts were awarded.

He adds: “It is vital that mistakes are addressed, wasted money recouped, and vital lessons learned about the conduct of Government.”

There are a number of key questions that I would be grateful if you could address directly: -

  • Baroness Mone has suggested that there was “a call to arms for all Lords, Baronesses, MPs, senior civil servants to help because they needed massive quantities of PPE…” As Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster at the time did you see this communication, and if so, can you outline what exactly it said?

  • Baroness Mone also said that she knows “all the key players in the Far East” and, after this call to arms, “made the call to Michael Gove”; when she offered help, she indicated that you said this was “amazing”. Can you please confirm if this is accurate and what record of the call has been kept, particularly given the vast sums of public money involved?

  • Can you also confirm how many further communications you had with Baroness Mone, either in person, on the telephone, on text/WhatsApp or in writing, and what record has been kept of them?

  • Baroness Mone also indicated that she discussed her House of Lords Register of Interests declaration with the Cabinet Office and that she was told: “we just need you to put…in writing and to declare your interest with us.” Can you please confirm who gave such advice, and when?

  • Who in the Cabinet Office, DHSC and NHS knew of Baroness Mone’s involvement with PPE MedPro?

I doubt that Gove will answer but his name’s in the frame … :wink:

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Hi

The system is now in full operation, one of them has been found out.

It seriously annoys me that our Governments are always on the high horse, saying we are lucky to live here when other Countries are so corrupt.

Nope, that is just plain wrong, it is simply that our system of Corruption is much more slick than that of other Countries.

The one advantage of being Terminally Ill and receiving lousy service is so what?

What else can they do to me?

Naff all really.

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Asked about her admission she did not tell the truth about her links to the company, Mr Sunak said: “The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we’re pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters. But it is also subject to an ongoing criminal investigation. And because of that, there’s not much further that I can add”.

Responding to Mr Sunak’s comments on X, Baroness Mone said: “What is @RishiSunak talking about? I was honest (1) with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them. They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.”

However, Lord Bethell - who was a minister in the Department of Health during the pandemic - disputed her account, saying she “wasn’t ‘honest’ about her financial interest to me”. “She didn’t explain ‘from the very beginning’ about her financial ‘involvement’,” he wrote on X, adding that Mr Sunak was right to take the matter seriously.

Like BJ, she’s an habitual liar and doesn’t know the meaning of “honest”:

Mone obtained a marketing job with the Labatt brewing company and, within two years, had risen to become its head of marketing in Scotland. She has since said that she invented qualifications to help get the job there.

In August 1999, Mone launched the Ultimo lingerie brand at Selfridges department store in London. Mone has claimed that an Ultimo bra was worn by Julia Roberts in the Hollywood film Erin Brockovich, but this was denied by the film’s creators.

TrimSecrets weight loss pills formulated by the “naturopath” Jan de Vries. In 2006 Mone formed a joint venture with de Vries, taking a 50% share in the product. Mone credited TrimSecrets pills for her weight loss and falsely claimed the efficacy of the product had been proven in clinical trials.

and an illegal business operator:

In 2014, a former operations director for MJM won a claim for unfair dismissal from her company after discovering that Mone had authorised electronic bugging of his office.

Mone threatened to sue her critics when it was revealed her company MJM International had paid a substantial sum of money into a controversial tax avoidance scheme, criticised by Chancellor George Osborne as “morally repugnant”. Mone said she had “not done anything wrong” in relation to tax avoidance and that her ex-husband had “dealt with all the finance”.

and a racist:

In December 2021, a wealth manager of Indian heritage accused Mone of sending racist text messages to him after the two were involved in a 2019 yachting incident in Monaco, which resulted in the death of a person. He said that Mone called him “a waste of a man’s white skin” via text. A message from her lawyers said that Mone could not access her messages and had no "detailed memory of them". (2)

(2) Now where have I heard that defence before … :thinking:

Common as muck and a NPOW … :roll_eyes:

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The National Crime Agency has been handed a “vast” dossier of evidence on Baroness Mone, including texts and emails with senior officials and three ministers, The Times has learnt.

It is Mone’s claim that “everyone in government knew of my involvement” that has been put under the microscope this week. In her own words the Cabinet Office had asked her: “We just need you to put it in writing and declare your interest with us, that’s all,” she said in her interview with the BBC on Sunday.

Whether she did or not is yet to be determined and sits at the heart of the NCA fraud and bribery investigation, which was launched in May 2021.

The NCA is considering allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery, which Mone and Barrowman, 58, “categorically deny”. Officers raided six addresses, including their Belgravia residence, last year. The complex investigation is now well advanced and will conclude next year, an agency source said.

Mone continues to blame the Tory government and the Civil Service of the time for their losses, maintaining that her profits were openly and legitimately made:

Mone said the civil service should have blocked the contract if they knew there was a conflict of interest. This is fair criticism, government insiders said, as long as Mone was honest in her dealings.

Which, apparently, she wasn’t.

The deal to supply 25 million gowns at £4.88 each was signed on June 26 by Edward James, the deputy director of the DHSC, who was later awarded an MBE for services to healthcare. The “accounting officer” with ultimate responsibility for the contract was Sir Chris Wormald, the permanent secretary, The Times understands.

On X, Mone goes on the attack:

You have probably never heard of him, but … and his replies to the COVID inquiry is the man directly responsible for wasting £4bn on PPE. He has very serious questions to answer.

Indeed he has … and his replies to the COVID inquiry were less than satisfactory, being nothing less than a sycophantic defence of his boss, the odious Hancock.

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Baroness Mone has claimed she is being treated like the drug lord Pablo Escobar after having her bank accounts frozen by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Anti-corruption investigators will seek to claw back millions of pounds in “proceeds of crime” if the Conservative peer is prosecuted and convicted over her role in the PPE contracts scandal.

The accounts that have been frozen include one at Coutts, the private bank favoured by the royal family.

The NCA is believed to have ordered the banking freeze about 12 months ago to prevent Mone from moving any cash. It is investigating allegations of fraud and bribery surrounding PPE Medpro, the company led by Mone’s husband that was handed more than £200 million in government contracts after the peer lobbied ministers during the pandemic.

The legislation allows law-enforcement authorities to freeze bank accounts and other assets while an investigation is being carried out and before an individual is charged. If they are later found guilty, any money made through their crimes can be recovered through a confiscation order.

Mone is thought to have become aware of the banking freeze only when one of her cards was declined at a petrol station. (1) It is unclear how she is meeting her day-to-day expenses. (2)

(1) I’ll bet that pee’d off the peer … :laughing:

(2) Maybe, like Escobar, she keeps a “reserve” under the floorboards of her mansion … :moneybag:

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The couple face a National Crime Agency investigation into alleged fraud, with assets seized including a six-bedroom London townhouse and an Isle of Man country estate.

That’s on top of the frozen bank accounts … :exclamation:

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They need to go to jail, but knowing who their friends are this isn’t going to happen.

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The billionaire husband of Tory peer Michelle Mone has appeared on trial for tax fraud and misappropriation today in Spain after his hopes of an early acquittal before he took the stand were dashed.

Doug Barrowman’s lawyer claimed statute of limitations legislation meant it was too late to proceed against the wealthy businessman over the alleged tax offence and it was “improper” to accuse him of embezzlement. But Borja Castiella’s legal arguments fell on deaf ears as the three judges tasked with deciding if the 57-year-old Scot has committed crimes that could see him jailed for five and a half years if convicted, ruled his trial must go ahead.

Six British associates also being prosecuted alongside Barrowman for the same offences at a court in the northern Spanish port city of Santander following a collapsed cable plant venture also had their applications for a quick dismissal denied. The start of the six-day public hearing at Cantabria Provincial court, suspended twice since its scheduled first day more than a year ago, began with the first two of the seven defendants taking the stand in turns.

The court case marked a new chapter in a long-running saga which initially saw Barrowman and his business partners cleared of blame over the October 2012 bankruptcy of a 18.8 million Euros (£16 million) cable factory they bought in May 2008 with bank finance. A commercial court ruled in September 2016 the bankruptcy, which cost 213 workers their jobs, was “fortuitous” and not “culpable.”

But Glasgow-born father-of-four Barrowman, one of the two largest shareholders in now-defunct B3 Cable Solutions Spain which bought the plant in Maliano near Santander, was charged after a separate criminal probe which started before their civil court exoneration. State prosecutors want him jailed for three years if convicted of misappropriation and two and a half years for the alleged tax crime.

Obviously, a fraud case can’t be covered in a few short paragraphs but more detail is available on the link.