Michelle Mone, a British businesswoman, and Conservative peer have been charged with advocating for PPE Medpro during the pandemic’s outbreak in 2020. Following Mone’s recommendation to ministers, the company received sizable government contracts worth more than £200 million ($246 million). In exchange, she allegedly obtained a covert payment of £29 million ($35 million) from the company’s profits for herself and her children.
Mone reportedly used their personal email addresses to send letters to Gove
The names of the ministers she contacted about the issue have now been made public by The Sunday Times. According to the article, Mone lobbied Lord Agnew and Michael Gove to gain contracts for PPE Medpro. Mone reportedly used their personal email addresses to send letters to Gove, who was at the time the Cabinet Office minister, and Agnew. (Alprazolam) Who served as his assistant and was in charge of purchasing.
She wrote: “We have managed to source PPE masks through my team in Hong Kong. In order to commit to this 100,000 [masks] per day could you please get back to me ASAP as freight will also need to be secured.”
However, since it was taking too long for a response, Mone contacted Agnew via phone and email. Sources told the publication that she was “rude, abrasive and bullying” and had a “hectoring tone [that] was very irritating.” She was allegedly even called “a right pain in the arse” by Gove.
According to documents examined by the Guardian, a covert offshore trust with 51-year-old Mone and her children as beneficiaries collected £29 million from PPE Medpro’s revenues. According to bank records, the company provided medical gowns and face masks.
An examination into what they dubbed “absolutely sickening, shameful and unforgivable” instances of businesses profiting from political ties over useless PPE during the pandemic has sparked a significant uproar in the parliament as a result of this issue.
The government’s procurement contracts during the pandemic have been requested by lawmakers. One MP said that Transparency International had since identified several of these contracts as carrying a “corruption risk.”
Her husband, businessman Douglas Barrowman made at least £65 million ($80 million) from PPE Medpro
Michelle Mone’s failure to list PPE Medpro in her House of Lords register of financial interests is surprising. In a statement to the Guardian last year, her attorney stated that “Baroness Mone did not register any interests as she did not get any financial advantage and was not affiliated in any way with PPE Medpro.”
Last week, the Guardian also revealed that her husband, businessman Douglas Barrowman made at least £65 million ($80 million) from PPE Medpro. Later, he distributed the funds using trusts, businesses, and offshore accounts.