Monday, December 18, 2023
Liar
The satirist and now disgraced American politician, Al Franken once produced a book called 'Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)', which title seemed at the time to be rather over-egging the pudding in stating its subject matter. Nevertheless, it provided an interesting perspective on the Bush administration and Fox News, though what he might think of Michelle Mone is, as yet, unrecorded.
The Guardian reports on the startling interview with the former Conservative peer over the weekend, in which she admitted that she lied when she denied repeatedly having been involved with a company that made millions of pounds in profits from UK government PPE deals during the pandemic.
The paper records that Mone said she “wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes” and had not told the truth about her involvement to protect her family from press attention. The very definition of lying is that the perpetrator is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes.
They say that when it was put to her that she had admitted lying to the press, Mone replied: “That’s not a crime”:
Guardian investigations found Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved with the company PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts worth £203m in May and June 2020 after she approached ministers, including Michael Gove, with an offer to supply PPE.
The National Crime Agency is conducting an investigation into alleged criminal offences in the procurement of the contracts by the company.
Responding to Mone’s comments to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Our message to those people who sought to use the pandemic to get rich quick [is]: we want our money back.”
Labour has also called on Gove to appear before MPs to face questions over the scandal.
In a film uploaded to YouTube last week, paid for by PPE Medpro, which featured the first public interviews with Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, since the NCA began its investigation, the film’s presenter, Mark Williams-Thomas, said the couple were facing criminal allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery. They both deny wrongdoing.
In the Kuenssberg interview, Mone, who was involved with the lingerie company Ultimo before David Cameron appointed her to the House of Lords in 2015, admitted that she and Barrowman, through their lawyers, repeatedly falsely denied they had any connection to PPE Medpro.
She said she regretted having done so: “We’ve done a lot of good, but if we were to say anything that we have done that we are sorry for, and that’s … We should have told the press straight up, straight away, nothing to hide … I was just protecting my family. And again, I’m sorry for that, but I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. No one.”
Kuenssberg said: “You’ve admitted today that you lied to the press and you essentially lied to the public.” Mone replied: “Saying to the press, ‘I’m not involved’, to protect my family, can I just make this clear, it’s not a crime … I was protecting my family.”
In November 2022, the Guardian revealed that leaked documents produced by HSBC bank indicated that Barrowman was an investor in PPE Medpro, and that he was paid at least £65m from its profits. The documents indicated that he then transferred £29m to an offshore trust, the Keristal Trust, of which Mone and her three adult children were beneficiaries.
In their BBC interview, Barrowman acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company had made a profit on that scale, and that he had transferred money to the Keristal Trust. “Medpro made a return on its investment of about, realistically, about 30% [approximately £61m],” he said.
The couple acknowledged that Barrowman had transferred money into the trust, and in the interview, Mone referred to the figure of £29m.
On the basis of this interview alone, proceedings should be initiated to removed Mone from the House of Lords, but it also raises questions for government ministers and we can only hope that when Parliament reconvenes they will be summoned to the relevant committees to account for the way Mone was allowed to profit from the pandemic.
The Guardian reports on the startling interview with the former Conservative peer over the weekend, in which she admitted that she lied when she denied repeatedly having been involved with a company that made millions of pounds in profits from UK government PPE deals during the pandemic.
The paper records that Mone said she “wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes” and had not told the truth about her involvement to protect her family from press attention. The very definition of lying is that the perpetrator is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes.
They say that when it was put to her that she had admitted lying to the press, Mone replied: “That’s not a crime”:
Guardian investigations found Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were involved with the company PPE Medpro, which was awarded contracts worth £203m in May and June 2020 after she approached ministers, including Michael Gove, with an offer to supply PPE.
The National Crime Agency is conducting an investigation into alleged criminal offences in the procurement of the contracts by the company.
Responding to Mone’s comments to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Our message to those people who sought to use the pandemic to get rich quick [is]: we want our money back.”
Labour has also called on Gove to appear before MPs to face questions over the scandal.
In a film uploaded to YouTube last week, paid for by PPE Medpro, which featured the first public interviews with Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, since the NCA began its investigation, the film’s presenter, Mark Williams-Thomas, said the couple were facing criminal allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery. They both deny wrongdoing.
In the Kuenssberg interview, Mone, who was involved with the lingerie company Ultimo before David Cameron appointed her to the House of Lords in 2015, admitted that she and Barrowman, through their lawyers, repeatedly falsely denied they had any connection to PPE Medpro.
She said she regretted having done so: “We’ve done a lot of good, but if we were to say anything that we have done that we are sorry for, and that’s … We should have told the press straight up, straight away, nothing to hide … I was just protecting my family. And again, I’m sorry for that, but I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. No one.”
Kuenssberg said: “You’ve admitted today that you lied to the press and you essentially lied to the public.” Mone replied: “Saying to the press, ‘I’m not involved’, to protect my family, can I just make this clear, it’s not a crime … I was protecting my family.”
In November 2022, the Guardian revealed that leaked documents produced by HSBC bank indicated that Barrowman was an investor in PPE Medpro, and that he was paid at least £65m from its profits. The documents indicated that he then transferred £29m to an offshore trust, the Keristal Trust, of which Mone and her three adult children were beneficiaries.
In their BBC interview, Barrowman acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company had made a profit on that scale, and that he had transferred money to the Keristal Trust. “Medpro made a return on its investment of about, realistically, about 30% [approximately £61m],” he said.
The couple acknowledged that Barrowman had transferred money into the trust, and in the interview, Mone referred to the figure of £29m.
On the basis of this interview alone, proceedings should be initiated to removed Mone from the House of Lords, but it also raises questions for government ministers and we can only hope that when Parliament reconvenes they will be summoned to the relevant committees to account for the way Mone was allowed to profit from the pandemic.
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Profits on contracts should,say, be limited to 5%.Any above that should be taxed at a highrt rate.
Can we now get onto the NEXT fraud exploitation case.
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Can we now get onto the NEXT fraud exploitation case.
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