The National Crime Agency has launched an investigation into potential fraud in a PPE company linked to Michelle Moon and searched the dormitory of a Tory peer.
The NCA investigation is against PPE Medpro, a company that secured more than £ 200 million in government procurement near the start of the pandemic without a public tender.
On Wednesday, the agency searched several properties associated with the company on the Isle of Man and in London. These include the Isle of Man office building where PPE Medpro is registered and the mansion where Lady Moon lives with her husband, business mogul Douglas Barrowman.
Isle of Man police confirmed that search warrants were carried out at four addresses on the island on Wednesday “in support of an ongoing NCA investigation”. There were no arrests.
It is estimated that more than a dozen law enforcement officers appeared unexpectedly in the Knox House building in the capital of the island of Douglas, where the company PPE Medpro on the Isle of Man is registered. One witness described the building being guarded by both front and rear staff.
It is alleged that documents, computers, telephones and other electronic devices were seized from the building.
Michelle Moon and Douglas Barrowman at a charity dinner in 2019. Photo: David M Benett / Getty Images
The address of Wardour Street in central London, the office of the UK-registered company PPE Medpro, which has awarded two public contracts worth 203 million pounds, was also searched. A staff member in this building told the Guardian: “This is ‘no comment’ everywhere.” PPE Medpro’s lawyers declined to comment.
There is no evidence that the NCA investigation is related to issues that have previously been the subject of public debate. However, the investigation is likely to raise questions again about the wider £ 12 billion PPE contracts the government awarded during the pandemic under emergency rules that circumvent normal competitive bidding processes.
It will also put a renewed focus on both PPE Medpro and the process by which the company has secured its government procurement. He has been at the center of a number of controversies in recent months that have baffled Maun and other senior Tories, including Michael Gove, Theodore Agnew and James Bethel.
The company was one of 51 businesses that were processed through a government-run VIP tape to quickly serve companies recommended by political affiliates.
Earlier, The Guardian reported that Maun had addressed Gove, Lord Agnew and Lord Bethel on behalf of PPE Medpro. All at the time were ministers involved in pandemic procurement.
Mone seems to have contributed to the introduction of PPE Medpro in Agnew’s “high priority” VIP bar in May 2020.
In January, the Guardian reported that leaked files suggested that Maun and Barrowman were secretly involved in the PPE Medpro business. At the time, Mone’s lawyers said in response that the Guardian’s findings were “based entirely on assumptions and speculation, not accuracy.”
House of Lords Standards Commissioner Martin Jelly then launched an investigation, which is still ongoing, as to whether Mone’s ties to the company violate member rules. She denied any wrongdoing.
In response to previous stories, Mone’s lawyers said any suggestion of an association or secret agreement between Tory’s partner and PPE Medpro would be “inaccurate” and that she was not involved in the business. “Baroness Monet is neither an investor, nor a director, nor a shareholder in any way related to PPE Medpro. It has never had any role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process in which the contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro. “
Mone’s lawyers said that after she took the “simple, independent and short step” of referring PPE Medpro to the government, she did nothing more about the company.
Barrowman’s lawyers similarly distanced him from the company, but did not comment on whether he had benefited financially from the company.
It is not known whether searches of PPE-related properties, Medpro, are part of a broader investigation by NCOs into potential fraud related to the supply of PPE during the pandemic. In a statement, the NCA said: “The NCA does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of investigations or the names of those who may or may not be investigated.
The first PPE Medpro government contract, worth £ 80.85 million for the supply of face masks, was awarded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (DHSC) at the end of May 2020. The second, a contract worth £ 122 million for delivery of 25 million sterile surgical gowns was awarded in June 2020, but was the subject of a major contractual dispute.
The government rejected PPE Medpro dresses after inspections in the United Kingdom and said it was seeking to recover its money through a dispute resolution process. PPE Medpro claims that it has complied with the terms of its dress contract and is entitled to withhold the money it has paid.
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