The Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, denied for years that they have been concerned in PPE Medpro, an organization that secured greater than £200m in authorities contracts to produce face masks and surgical robes through the Covid pandemic. They’re topic to a long-running Nationwide Crime Company investigation, going through allegations of fraud and bribery, which they deny.
Right here’s a timeline of key occasions.
Could and June 2020The authorities awarded PPE Medpro, a newly shaped firm, two contracts to produce PPE. The primary, for £80.85m, was to produce 210m face masks; the second, for £122m, was to produce 25m sterile surgical robes.
October 2020As a part of the transparency guidelines over public spending, the federal government revealed the PPE Medpro contracts. There have been evident hyperlinks with Mone, and Barrowman’s Isle of Man monetary companies agency Knox group.
December 2020The Guardian revealed that PPE Medpro’s contracts have been processed through the federal government’s “VIP lane”, which fast-tracked gives of PPE from firms launched by folks with connections to the federal government.
Mone and Barrowman emphatically denied that they have been concerned when approached by the Guardian. A lawyer for the couple mentioned “any suggestion of an affiliation” between Mone and PPE Medpro could be “inaccurate”, “deceptive” and “defamatory”.
PPE Medpro mentioned: “PPE Medpro was not awarded the contract due to firm or private connections to the UK authorities or the Conservative social gathering.”
November 2021In response to a freedom of knowledge request by the Good Legislation Venture, the federal government made public which firms have been awarded contracts through the VIP lane. The checklist revealed that Mone did introduce PPE Medpro to her fellow Tory peer after which minister, Lord Agnew.
A lawyer for Mone however denied that she had lied beforehand, and mentioned: “Having taken the quite simple, solitary and transient step of referring PPE Medpro as a possible provider to the workplace of Lord Agnew, our consumer didn’t do something additional in respect of PPE Medpro.”
Requested why Mone didn’t declare PPE Medpro on her Lords register of pursuits, her lawyer replied: “Baroness Mone didn’t declare any curiosity as she didn’t profit financially and was not linked to PPE Medpro in any capability.”
January 2022The Guardian revealed, based mostly on leaked recordsdata, that Mone and Barrowman each gave the impression to be concerned within the firm.
In response, a lawyer representing her mentioned the Guardian’s reporting was “grounded fully on supposition and hypothesis and never based mostly on accuracy”. A lawyer representing Barrowman mentioned the Guardian’s reporting amounted to “clutching at straws” and was “largely incorrect”.
The Home of Lords commissioner for requirements launched an investigation into whether or not Mone had breached the Lords code of conduct.
March 2022The Guardian reported, following a freedom of knowledge request, that Mone launched PPE Medpro in Could 2020 initially to Michael Gove, then the Cupboard Workplace minister. She had then emailed Gove and Agnew on their personal e mail addresses, providing to produce PPE by means of “my workforce in Hong Kong”.
March 2022Guardian revealed that the federal government had rejected the surgical robes for which it paid PPE Medpro £122m, and the robes had by no means been used within the NHS.
PPE Medpro maintained the robes had been match for goal.
April 2022The Nationwide Crime Company executed search warrants at Mone and Barrowman’s houses in London and the Isle of Man, and PPE Medpro’s places of work. The crime company has mentioned its investigation started in Could 2021, and was trying into “suspected legal offences dedicated within the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro”.
November 2022The Guardian revealed that leaked paperwork produced by HSBC financial institution indicated that Barrowman was paid not less than £65m from PPE Medpro’s income. The paperwork indicated that Barrowman then transferred £29m to an offshore belief, the Keristal Belief, of which Mone and her three grownup youngsters have been the beneficiaries.
A lawyer for Mone mentioned in response to the Guardian’s reporting: “There are a variety of the explanation why our consumer can not touch upon these points and she or he is below no responsibility to take action.”
A lawyer representing Barrowman and PPE Medpro mentioned a unbroken investigation restricted what his purchasers have been in a position to say. He added: “In the meanwhile we’re additionally instructed to say that there’s a lot inaccuracy within the portrayal of the alleged ‘info’ and a variety of them are fully fallacious.”
December 2022Mone introduced she was taking a depart of absence from the Home of Lords with quick impact “as a way to clear her identify of the allegations which have been unjustly levelled towards her”, her spokesperson mentioned.
The federal government sued PPE Medpro for the complete £122m it paid for the rejected robes, plus prices. PPE Medpro mentioned it could “rigorously” defend the declare.
November 2023After three years of denials, Mone and Barrowman first acknowledged in response to questions from the Guardian that they have been concerned with the corporate.
December 2023Mone and Barrowman took half of their first broadcast interviews to speak in regards to the scandal. In a movie uploaded to YouTube, paid for by PPE Medpro, the presenter Mark Williams-Thomas mentioned that the couple have been going through allegations of fraud and bribery within the NCA investigation. In that interviewthe couple denied wrongdoing.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Mone admitted that she lied to the press when she repeatedly denied involvement within the firm through her attorneys. She mentioned she had performed so to guard her household from press consideration, and now regretted it, however mentioned that mendacity to the media was “not against the law”.