Michelle Mone’s businessman husband Doug Barrowman has arrived at Spanish court to face claims he ‘took part in a £5.5 million corporation tax scam’.
Baroness Mone, 52, did not appear to be present at the court in Santander on the opening day of 58-year-old Barrowman’s five-day trial, in which he could end up behind bars for up to five and a half years if convicted.
The couple are being investigated separately by the UK’s National Crime Agency for alleged fraud, over the awarding of more than £200 million in VIP Lane Covid-19 contracts in 2020 to PPE Medpro – a company they were linked to.
Barrowman is accused in Spain – along with six co-suspected Britons – of profiting from an allegedly fraudulent invoice of €6.3 million.
Prosecutors say it was created in July 2008 to evade taxes and take millions of pounds from Spanish company B3 Cable Solutions through British company Axis Ventura.
British billionaire businessman Doug Barrowman is today charged in court in Santander, Spain, along with six co-defendants for an alleged tax crime
Barrowman, 58, faces up to five and a half years in prison if convicted
He and 52-year-old wife Baroness Michelle Mone – seen at a British Asian Trust reception at London’s Guildhall in February 2017 – have been criticized over Covid contracts
Doug Barrowman and six other defendants deny the Spanish charges against them
B3 went bankrupt four years later, leading to 200 job losses at a cable factory near Santander.
Barrowman and his six co-defendants deny the allegations, while a previous civil lawsuit cleared him and his partners of any administrative wrongdoing.
A four-page indictment alleges that Barrowman and two other investors attended two B3 Cable Solutions meetings in 2008 where a €6.3m (£5.5m) invoice was ‘ratified’ and approved on company accounts.
Spanish authorities claim that the payment of the invoice was ‘intended for their own personal benefit’ due to alleged links between Barrowman and British firm Axis Ventura, the Manchester-based company that made the payment of €6.3 million (£5.5 million) received.
Barrowman’s defense claims he was not a shareholder or director of Axis at the time the invoice was raised and paid.
Axis, through Landsbanski, financed €18.8 million for the purchase of B3 Cable Solutions Spain, a cable provider in northern Spain that was later closed down in 2012.
According to the indictment, Barrowman terminated his connection to Axis on March 18, 2008, four months before the invoice was paid and later used in part to offset B3’s corporate tax bill by €1.6 million.
The indictment further alleges that the Spanish treasury was defrauded of more than €0.5 million and also demands that B3 be repaid.
The prosecution document refers to three men, including Barrowman, who were not directors of B3 companies, but shareholders with 59 percent of the capital.
Lingerie entrepreneur Baroness Mone was not present at the Spanish court today
Doug Barrowman, who arrives at the court in Santander in Spain today, claims he was not a shareholder or director of Axis at the time a £5.5 million invoice was raised and paid
Doug Barrowman and his wife Baroness Michelle Mone, pictured here at Cheltenham Racecourse in March 2019, say they have been ‘treated like a punching bag’
They were present at the General Meeting on 27 May 2008, when the financial arrangements with Landsbanki were made, including the ratification of the €6.3 million invoice. The trio were also present at the General Meeting on April 9 the following year, when the company accounts were signed off.
The document states: ‘Therefore, with their support, they knowingly authorized agreements that, among other things, referred to services provided and subsequently paid to Axis Ventura, because they knew, due to their role in both companies, that this was far from the payment of services meant. never provided, the €6.3 million was intended for their own personal benefit.’
Regarding Axis Ventura’s role in B3’s operations, the complaint stated: ‘No services were provided or activities performed by Axis Ventura.
Instead, the defendants who participated in both companies, guided by the intention to obtain an illegal advantage, took advantage of the fact that a significant amount of money had ended up in B3 Cable’s account through bank financing and jointly agreed to to approve payment at the shareholders’ meeting. of a significant amount to another entity in which they themselves participated.’
Elsewhere, the business dealings of Barrowman’s wife – dubbed ‘Baroness Bra’ – are coming under scrutiny after she allegedly profited from pandemic contracts.
Leaked documents allegedly reveal she and her children could have received millions after a company called PPE Medpro was referred for government contracts to supply masks and gowns.
The company was awarded £203m in two contracts after Baroness Mone, a member of the House of Lords, recommended it to ministers at the start of the pandemic.
PPE Medpro is now being sued by the government for breaching the terms of a £122 million contract to supply 25 million surgical gowns for medical staff.
The company said it would defend the civil lawsuit and the Department of Health had “vastly over-ordered” personal protective equipment.
Yet documents seen by the Financial Times suggested Mone’s husband – who denies any wrongdoing – received £65 million in profits from PPE Medpro.
Doug Barrowman was in the dock in Santander along with six co-defendants
Doug Barrowman and the other six Britons accused of fraud have denied all charges
Michelle Mone, here at the State Opening of Parliament in London in June 2017, was appointed Conservative peer by then Prime Minister David Cameron in August 2015
Earlier this month, Baroness Mone and her family said they had been treated ‘like a punching bag’ after lying about having no links with a PPE company that had awarded £200 million in government contracts.
In a statement published by Lady Mone on to protect against coronavirus infection through the company PPE Medpro. .
Lady Mone had admitted lying when she denied having links to the company, a consortium led by her husband, which had been awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply gowns and face masks.
The lingerie entrepreneur will benefit from the £60million of profits her husband put into a trust.