Michelle Mone was spotted on holiday with her husband at a villa bought three months after police raided their homes during a probe into a £200million PPE deal.
Tory peer Baroness Mone and Doug Barrowman, who own a £20million London house, an Isle of Man estate and a £40million Caribbean home, acquired the £7million Algarve property through an offshore firm last July, it can be revealed.
That was 23 months after the couple allegedly received £65million in profits from PPE Medpro Ltd, the Daily Record reports.
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The firm set up by their business associate Anthony Page is being sued for more than £130million by the Department for Health over gowns it claims could not be used in the NHS. The couple and PPE Medpro deny any wrongdoing.
This week, Mone was pictured walking her pedigree dogs while businessman Barrowman brushed up on his golf skills at the exclusive Quinta do Lago resort.
After flying to Faro in Portugal on their £6million private jet last week, the pair eating out in cafes and
restaurants nestled among the dunes a short drive from their luxury villa.
The Baroness is under a Parliamentary standards investigation into her role in winning Covid contracts for a firm set up days earlier.
Their homes in London and the Isle of Man were raided last April by officers from the National Crime Agency who are investigating “suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro”.
When it was first revealed the links between Mone and Page, who resigned as director of the company promoting her personal brand to set up PPR Medpro, she insisted she had “no role or involvement” in the new firm.
And after we tracked her down in Portugal, she launched a foul-mouthed rant. She said: “Why are you doing this?
“Why aren’t you reporting what they are doing to us?
“Have you read the defence?
“Do you expect me to talk to you when you are being an a******e?”
Asked whether she owned the nearby villa, which is registered to a secretive company in the US tax haven of Delaware, the peer replied: “Nothing is owned by me. It is all owned by my husband.”
It has been reported that bank accounts and trusts linked to Barrowman received £65million in profits from the PPE deal in September 2020 and then transferred £29million to a trust set up to benefit Mone and her children the following month.
The couple’s £10million super yacht Lady M was reportedly put up for sale last year, around the time they started enjoying trips to Quinta do Lago, billed as “Europe’s finest golf, leisure and lifestyle resort”. Their home in a secluded corner of the resort is described as an “incomparable six-bedroom villa with stunning views” and boasts a large pool and gym.
Mone threw herself into the local social scene last June, partying with pop star Nicole Scherzinger and the former Scottish rugby international Max Evans.
He posted a picture on his Instagram account of himself with the peer and her daughter Beth at the nearby beachside Agua Club on July 9.
That is around the time the Delaware company that owned the villa was bought by Barrowman.
The transaction means ownership of the Portuguese property has effectively not changed.
This is a common legal ploy in Portugal to avoid stamp duty and other property taxes of up to eight per cent, which could have saved Barrowman up to £533,000, if he used it.
MDM Legal senior lawyer Spencer Dohner said: “We can’t say that it is illegal but it is a scheme to pay less tax. It is quite standard procedure in the Algarve and particularly in Quinta do Lago, and many properties are owned by Delaware firms.
“When the villa is sold a document in Delaware is passed from the seller to the buyer.
“As far as the Portuguese authorities are concerned, the ownership has not changed. It will save the buyer up to eight per cent in tax.
“I would say it could be morally questionable.”
A spokesman for Barrowman said: “All laws and disclosures have been complied with regarding the property. The property was not bought with profits from supplying PPE.”
Mone, from the east end of Glasgow, founded the Ultimo bra brand with her former husband.
She was made a life peer by then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015 and appointed as the Government’s start-up business tsar.
But she has faced a storm of controversy since it emerged she recommended PPE Medpro to the Government’s “VIP lane” for Covid contracts days before the company had even been formed.
It soon won a contract for £80million worth of facemasks followed by a £122million contract for the medical gowns that are allegedly unusable.
That is currently being fought out through the courts, with the Department for Health also seeking legal costs that will bring the total to more than £30million.
Mone’s lawyers have claimed she did not declare her PPE Medpro link in the House of Lords register of financial interests as “she did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro Ltd in any capacity”.
After The Guardian revealed last year that leaked documents suggested she and her husband benefitted from £65million in profits from PPE Medpro, her lawyer said: “There are a number of reasons why our client cannot comment on these issues and she is under no duty to do so.”
In December, Mone’s representative announced the peer was taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords “in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”.
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