An Isle of Man company is among the applicants seeking to appoint administrators to PPE Medpro, the personal protective equipment supplier linked to Baroness Mone.
PPE Medpro is being put into administration while awaiting judgment in a £134 million High Court case.
An application to appoint administrators was lodged on Tuesday, according to the Mirror. One of the applicants is Angelo (PTC) Ltd, based on St George’s Street in Douglas.
Company records for Angelo (PTC) show its officers are Voirrey Coole, a former director of PPE Medpro, and Timothy Eve. Both list Isle of Man addresses.
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PPE Medpro has £666,000 in assets after spending £4.3 million defending itself in the High Court against claims over gowns that were said to be unusable in the NHS. The company’s facemasks were not in question.
Judgment in the case between the Department of Health and PPE Medpro is due to be handed down on Wednesday.
According to the Mirror, Baroness Mone, who still has a home in St Mark’s, has complained that she and her husband Doug Barrowman have been made ‘scapegoats’.
Even if the Government wins its £134 million claim, there is no guarantee the taxpayer would recover any money.
Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman secured government PPE contracts in the early weeks of the pandemic.
Mone initially denied involvement in the company, but it later emerged she and her husband had benefitted from £65 million in profits.
The Department of Health launched proceedings in 2022, alleging that 25 million gowns supplied by the firm were unsuitable for use in the NHS after tests found many were not sterile.
The applicants to appoint administrators also include insolvency specialists from two London firms, Forvis Mazars and Clarke Bell.
Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency has launched a fraud investigation into PPE Medpro. Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman have been interviewed under caution and their homes in London and the Isle of Man were raided in April 2022.
The pair are suspected of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery. They deny the allegations and insist they have done nothing wrong.
Separately, Mone is under investigation by the Lords Commissioner for Standards over whether she failed to register an interest in PPE Medpro and whether she lobbied for the company to win contracts.
Baroness Mone rose to prominence as the founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand and was made a peer by former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015. She married Isle of Man entrepreneur Doug Barrowman in 2020 at Peel Cathedral.