The Tory peer Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman are selling off luxury houses, a private jet and their superyacht while the National Crime Agency probes their finances.
A company linked to the couple, PPE Medpro, is fighting a £133 million High Court claim from the Department of Health over PPE it supplied to the NHS in the height of the pandemic that was found to be defective.
Mone introduced the company to government representatives and it was awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply gowns and masks. The former lingerie entrepreneur stands to benefit from £60 million in profits placed into a trust by her husband.
The couple also face a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into their finances and have had their bank accounts frozen, leading to Mone complaining that she has “been treated like Pablo Escobar”.
The luxury villa in St Barts has six bedrooms and was once rented by Beyoncé and Jay-Z
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Now a £7.5 million 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. The assets are linked to the couple through offshore holdings, the Daily Mirror has reported.
The Cessna Citation CJ4 jet, capable of carrying nine passengers, is being sold through the aviation broker Jetcraft. It is described as being in excellent condition with low flight hours and on-board wi-fi.
Barrowman’s villa 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.
The six-bedroom Villa Neo is still available to rent for $95,000 a week and features an infinity pool with a swim-up bar and whirlpool bath, a nightclub and a steam room. It was designed by the architect Patrick Raffeneau and is named after Neo from the Matrix movies.
When Barrowman first put it up for sale in 2021, it was reported that he wished to sell it in order to spend more time on his yacht. However, the Lady M is also up for sale through Fraser Yachts brokers, where it is described as a “remarkable” vessel. It can carry ten passengers and six crew and boasts four “staterooms”, a sundeck and lounge, plus a separate outdoor dining area.
During the pandemic, Mone posed on the yacht for a photo posted to her Instagram account. The caption read: “Today I’m feeling reflective. I feel so grateful to be where I am, in a beautiful part of the world with the people I love the most. It wasn’t easy. There were some real challenges, both emotionally and physically.
“Business isn’t easy. But it is rewarding.”
At the time Britain was experiencing a small wave of Covid infections despite the success of the vaccine programme.
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.”
Doug Barrowman, the husband of Baroness Mone, said last week that his private financial affairs were not for public debate
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Barrowman accused the government last week of using the NCA to threaten the couple into settling their civil suit over PPE supplies, and said 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 payment into Mone’s Coutts account, which arrived after millions in profits from PPE Medpro were transferred to trusts and accounts connected to her husband.
If the payment is proven to have come from the profits of the government contracts, it could suggest that the baroness was a direct beneficiary.
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