Exclusive: Suppliers for firm linked to UK peer Michelle Mone helped source Covid masks for Australian government that were found unusable
Covid testing in Sydney in 2020. Two Cyprus-registered companies were involved in supplying masks for both Australia and the UK.Covid testing in Sydney in 2020. Two Cyprus-registered companies were involved in supplying masks for both Australia and the UK.
According to documents seen by the Guardian, two of ABM’s suppliers were Cyprus-registered companies named Neumer Holdings and Neumer Trading, which are owned by Ricky and Evan Neumann. The Neumer companies then paid a Hong Kong-based company, Eric Beare Associates, to source the majority of the PPE from Chinese factories.
Of the equipment that PPE Medpro supplied in the UK, the Department of Health and Social Care rejected the entire consignment of surgical gowns under one of the two contracts. The DHSC isThe two Australian government contracts were issued to ABM in the spring of 2020, amid the frantic global race for PPE stocks, and around the same time PPE Medpro secured its deals with the UK government.
Mone’s lawyer said in response at that time that there were “a number of reasons why our client cannot comment on these issues”. Barrowman’s lawyer said a continuing investigation limited what his client could say, but added that “there is much inaccuracy in the portrayal of the alleged ‘facts’ and a number of them are completely wrong”.Both then and previously Mone and Barrowman had denied they were involved in the company.
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