Thread by @allthecitizens

🚨Tory-linked firm denied involvement of Baroness who referred them to VIP lane

Company awarded contracts through the VIP procurement lane denied that Baroness Mone, whose husband owns a firm registered at the same address, had any involvement in the awarding of contracts.

But information obtained by the Good Law Project has revealed that Baroness Mone referred the company to the VIP lane process, leading to them being awarded contracts worth £202,850,000. Hospital gowns bought by PPE Medpro turned out to be unusable.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-552755…

In an email exchange on 7 July, 2021, Anthony Page, PPE Medpro director, stated that “You should be aware that Baroness Mone is neither an investor, director or in any way associated with PPE Medpro.”

“She has never had any role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro. Similarly, [Mone’s husband] Mr Barrowman is not an investor, director or shareholder in PPE Medpro.”

In December 2020, the Guardian described PPE Medpro as a “company with mystery investors and links to the Isle of Man… Page has declined to identify the investors due to unspecified “confidentiality obligations”.”
theguardian.com/world/2020/dec…

Baroness Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman is a businessman who founded the Knox House Trust, based on the Isle of Man, but with offices in London at the same address as PPE Medpro. Anthony Page serves as a director of both firms. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Barr…

Knox House Trust describes itself as “a tailored advisory service to ultra-high net worth individuals” knoxgroupplc.com/about-kpo/

Barrowman is also the beneficiary of an offshore trust, Knox Worldwide Limited, which isa based in the British Virgin Islands. This company’s agent was Mossack Fonseca, whose clients were revealed in the Panama Papers leak in 2016.
offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/10170802

PPE Medpro and another company, PPE Medical Protection Limited, were incorporated on 12 May 2020 and are registered at the same High Holborn address in London. Both PPE companies are directed by Anthony Page and Voirrey Coole.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/125970…

The same address in London is also used by two companies of which Baroness Mone is director, Michelle Mone Interiors Unlimited and MMI Global Unlimited.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/FqIqC…

The same address is also used by a number of companies associated with a failed cryptocurrency platform which Baroness Mone launched in 2018.
p2pfinancenews.co.uk/2021/04/27/mys…

According to P2PFinNews, Mone"launched an initial coin offering in March 2018 with her venture capitalist partner Doug Barrowman to help build a platform that would let retail investors acquire stakes in or lend to early-stage businesses using Equi tokens”
p2pfinancenews.co.uk/2018/02/06/lin…

“Steve Wozniak joined the business in October 2018 but nothing public has been announced since.” Mone’s husband’s son, Anthony Barrowman, is the only director of the two companies associated with the crypto platform, Equi Capital Partners/Equi Global.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/aCZmp…

The Financial Times also links between Mone and some other PPE firms incorporated in the same month as PPE Medpro.

The Daily Record characterised Barrowman’s Aston Property Ventures as a “failed tax avoidance scheme”. At least one client of AML died by suicide after they were hit with demands for repaid taxes. dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-…

PPE Medpro director Anthony Page warned in his email that “It is important to note that we trust that there will be no inaccurate or misleading statements within your article. If that were to be the case then we will instruct our lawyers immediately, as necessary.”

PPE Medpro director Anthony Page warned in his email that “It is important to note that we trust that there will be no inaccurate or misleading statements within your article. If that were to be the case then we will instruct our lawyers immediately, as necessary.”

We contacted Page to ask him if he stood by the claim that Baroness Mone had no involvement with the awarding of contracts. We have so far received no reply.

Mone and Barrowman celebrated their wedding on the Isle of Man in 2020, and the couple celebrated their anniversary with a 32 course banquet in November 2021. Mone says that she plans to retire from public speaking to concentrate on her family. walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-new…

The Isle of Man has a high level of financial secrecy and rules that allow wealthy people to avoid paying VAT on private jets.
globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/t….

According to Politico, Anthony Page “was a former secretary for MGM Media, a company that manages Mone’s personal brand”. His denial that Mone was involved in the process of awarding PPE Medpro contracts now looks like it may have damaged her brand. politico.eu/newsletter/lon…