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16 Mar, 10 tweets, 4 min read
BREAKING: Previously unreported links emerge between two UK companies involved in separate concerning PPE contract wins. It appears the directors have known each other for some time. THREAD:
Fashion designer Karen Brost is the director of Luxe Lifestyle. In April 2020, Luxe was awarded £25 million to supply medical garments to the NHS despite having no assets, turnover, or notable history of having traded in PPE.
bylinetimes.com/2020/07/02/lif…
Brost is married to Tim Whyte, an investment banker who, as reported by the i at the time, has “extensive contacts” in China with state-owned companies.

But these aren’t the only contacts he has.
inews.co.uk/news/health/pe…
Whyte used to share the directorship of one ‘Times Place Brasseries Ltd’ with Nathan Englebrecht. Nathan is a current director of Ayanda Capital.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/087370…
Ayanda, a “currency trading, offshore property, private equity and trade financing” firm registered in Mauritius, were also awarded £252.2m to deliver facemasks to the frontline. 50 million of these, for which government paid £155m, were unfit for NHS use.
itv.com/news/2020-11-1…
The deal was reportedly done via Andrew Mills, who worked in a senior advisory capacity for the firm while also acting as an advisor to Board of Trade under Liz Truss, and processed through the high-priority lane within the Cabinet Office.
The NAO report on the government’s handling of PPE procurement identified failings in that conflict of interest declaration, outlining that “the due diligence checks… did not include Ayanda’s senior advisor and did not identify any conflicts of interest”
It is unclear whether Luxe received the same special treatment through the priority lane as Ayanda did. There is no evidence the relationship between the two directors had any effect on their being awarded the contract. However…
@allthecitizens feels these relationships are worth highlighting. Two companies with connected directors - one with no history of supplying PPE (who later were found to have supplied the wrong kind), another with no PPE trading history - receiving over £278m in public funds…
Does this story concern you? Can you help
@allthecitizens reveal more concerning Covid-19 contracts lacking possible due diligence and oversight? If so, please see the thread below to find out how you can help contribute and hold power to account:

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More from @allthecitizens

The Citizens Profile picture
8 Mar
Continuing our investigation into the expanding reach of US data analytics giant Palantir into UK public institutions, @allthecitizens have mapped £91m+ awarded to them across government. Below we outline the work they’re doing for the Cabinet Office:
The Cabinet Office are the 3rd highest UK gov awarders of contracts to Palantir, with £22m+ given since 2015. The oldest is a joint contract with Global Digital Services (GDS): £734,834 spent on an “Enterprise Analytical Platform and Intelligence Service”. contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c731846…
In 2016, the Cabinet Office also listed 4 separate G-Cloud spends on Palantir totalling some £1.4 million.
Read 12 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
5 Mar
BREAKING: Latest Tory donor list reveals more backers linked to Covid19 contract wins days after:

Globus Shetland owner donated £10k- then won £94m
Efficio’s parent co. director donated £50k- then won £1.45m
Also- P14 Medical owner donated £7.5k after £276m win

@bylinetimes
18 days after donating £10k to the Tories, Globus Shetland Ltd was awarded £94m Covid19 contract in Sep’20.

CEO Haraldur Agustsson is a member of Tory-donor Leader’s Group and his companies have donated over £425k to the party.
Agustsson’s other company, Alpha Solway, has also won 6 Covid19 contracts, totalling nearly £11m.
Read 12 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
3 Mar
BREAKING: Over half a billion pounds (£510m) in Covid19 contracts were awarded to 35 management consultancy companies, @allthecitizens has found. £490m was won by just 10 firms. Thread:
Only 21% (29) of these contracts were published within the 30 day legal time limit, and just 5% (8/148) were awarded through competitive tender - the rest were either fast tracked or awarded through previous framework agreements.
The Ministry of Housing Community and Local Government, the Ministry of Defence, and the Department of Health and Social Care were the three biggest ministries that farmed out consultancy services.
Read 16 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
2 Mar
BREAKING: At least 1,250 UK gov contracts issued under Covid19 were not published on time, @allthecitizens have found - meaning 75% of the 1,670 now-public pandemic-response contracts were published unlawfully late. THREAD:
The finding comes after the High Court ruling that Matt Hancock broke the law when failing to publish details of contracts on time. He and other ministers played down the problem, saying they were only published ‘a fortnight late’. This is largely untrue.
theguardian.com/society/2021/f…
After a judge ruled the Health Secretary had breached transparency legislation in how “vast quantities” of public money was spent, @allthecitizens examined almost 1700 contracts, finding an average delay between starting and publication of 93 days.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
Read 22 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
26 Feb
As @allthecitizens explore the scope of US analytics company Palantir in UK institutions, we’ve found £91m+ awarded to the controversial Silicon Valley surveillance outfit across government. Let’s unpack the work they’re doing with the MoD...
Palantir’s biggest UK client, the MOD, has awarded them £43m (4m more found since first reporting) contracts since 2015, including building a “search visualisation and analysis system”, a £28m contract relating to AI systems in combat aircraft. wccftech.com/palantir-secur…
In the US, Palantir recently took over a similar initiative. Project Maven was a Pentagon bid to build an AI surveillance platform for drone warfare. Google stepped away from the project citing ethical concerns. thenextweb.com/artificial-int…
Read 10 tweets
The Citizens Profile picture
25 Feb
As @allthecitizens map the expanding reach of controversial company Palantir into UK institutions, we’ve found £91m+ contracts awarded to the US surveillance outfit across British government. Let’s look at their work with local authorities...THREAD
In 2014 Sunderland City Council began operating an “intelligence hub” using Palantir software to “gather, process, and share data and information to help us better understand our customers and communities (and their) patterns of behaviour”.
The 5 yr project, developed under the council’s Community Leadership Programme to achieve “£100m of budget reductions”, ran with Palantir until July 2019, and cost £4.5m - once the contract ended it was hoped Sunderland Council would run it autonomously.
publictechnology.net/articles/news/…
Read 11 tweets

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