Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman have been forced to sell off their luxury houses, a private jet and their superyacht as pressure mounts over PPE Medpro.
The firm, which was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic and was introduced to government representatives by Mone via the VIP lane, is the subject of a National Crime Agency investigation and is facing a £133 million High Court claim from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Many items supplied by PPE Medpro were found to be defective and therefore were not able to be used by the NHS during the pandemic.
Regardless, the firm received £200 million in contracts, which Mone stands to benefit from a share of £60 million in profits placed into a trust by her husband.
According to reports in the Times, the pair have been forced to sell some of their major assets in preparation for what could be a costly court battle.
A £7.5 million Cessna private jet, a £7 million superyacht named “Lady M” and a £41 million six-bedroom villa on the Caribbean island of St Barts have all been listed for sale in the past few weeks, and are linked to the couple through offshore holdings.
The villa, owned by Barrowman, has been for sale since 2021 but its price was reduced recently from £63 million. It has previously been rented out to celebrities including Jay Z and Beyoncé.
A spokesman for Barrowman said: “The media’s ridiculous obsession with every tiny detail of Michelle and Doug’s personal life continues to reach desperate levels … This is a futile attempt to distract from Doug Barrowman’s robust fightback against the PPE Medpro allegations over the last few weeks.”
Barrowman accused the government last week of using the NCA to threaten the couple into settling their civil suit over PPE supplies, saying they have been treated as a “punchbag” for the DHSC’s wider failings during the pandemic.
His comments came after The Sunday Times revealed that the NCA is investigating a £3 million payment into Mone’s Coutts account, which arrived after millions of profits from PPE Medpro were transferred to trusts and accounts connected to her husband.
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