Doug Barrowman | |
---|---|
Born | Douglas Alan Barrowman 1 March 1965 Glasgow, Scotland |
Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
Occupation | Businessman |
Spouse | |
Children | 4 |
Douglas Alan Barrowman (born March 1965) [1] is a Scottish businessman. [2] He founded the Knox Group of Companies and has invested in Ve Interactive, Aston Ventures, and Equi Capital. [3] [4] [5] He is married to Michelle Mone. [6]
In 2022, in a series of investigative pieces, The Guardian reported that Barrowman, Mone and their children had secretly received £45.8 million in payments to offshore accounts from government PPE contracts, which they had lobbied for during the COVID-19 pandemic. The police launched an investigation into Barrowman's activities in January 2022.
On the 17 December 2023, Barrowman denied any wrongdoings when interviewed with his wife Baroness Mone on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. He explained that as a businessman and Isle of Man resident he had led a consortium that were awarded UK PPE contracts. He stated neither his wife or children had received proceeds from the business deal but admitted that profits had been placed in a Trust from which they might benefit upon his death. [7]
Barrowman was born on 1 March 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was raised in Simshill, before moving to Rutherglen at the age of 13, where he attended King's Park Secondary School. He later attended Glasgow University, graduating with a Bachelor of Accountancy degree in 1985. [8]
After graduating, Barrowman completed his professional examinations and qualified as a chartered accountant. [9] He worked for 3i, a private equity fund. [10] Barrowman resigned from 3i in 1992, to set up his own corporate finance practice during the 1990s. [11] He exited from the practice in 1999. [9]
In 1999, Barrowman founded Aston Ventures, a private investment vehicle. [12] Over the next ten years, Aston Ventures made 13 acquisitions of "old economy" businesses, including the third largest cable making company in the world, B3 Cables, with a total turnover of about £400 million over that period. [12] [13]
In 2008, Barrowman moved to the Isle of Man and founded The Knox Group of Companies which owned several businesses, including Aston Ventures. [14] Barrowman was also a director of Aston Management Ltd (AML), which provided tax advice and offshore loan schemes to freelance workers including social workers, locum doctors, nurses and engineers. [15] AML's services came under scrutiny after the UK government announced in 2017 that it would be claiming back tax from 50,000 scheme users through the Loan Charge measure, leading to criticism[ clarification needed ] in the House of Commons. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] AML ceased trading in 2010 before the tax rules changed. [17] In October 2020, a BBC report highlighted how thousands of AML customers were left facing a retrospective Loan Charge by HMRC. [21]
In 2011 Barrowman co-founded the KHG Private Equity Fund. [22]
VE Interactive collapsed into insolvency in 2018. Barrowman and other directors bought the insolvent company for £2m but the directors removed by a court following accusations they botched the sale. The High Court case, which ended this week, shone a light on controversial “pre-pack” administrations that allow companies to go bust, shed their debts and immediately be sold. [23]
Knox Group owned Financial Provisions Solutions, which went into voluntary liquidation in January 2019. In December 2022, the Daily Record reported that Army veterans lost tens of thousands of pounds when they transferred out of the final salary Army scheme to Financial Provisions Solutions. [24]
In 2017, Barrowman became the interim chairman of Ve Interactive, after an emergency cash injection and investment into the firm. [25] In the same year, Aston Plaza and Residences, a residential and commercial property development in Dubai priced in bitcoin, was launched. [26]
The Guardian released a set of articles, first in 2020 but then again in November 2022, detailing Barrowman and Mone's implication in lobbying for government PPE contracts, and the financial rewards they saw from these government contracts. [27] Barrowman received £45.8 million in payments to his private offshore accounts from £200 million government contracts with the money earmarked for PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. In December 2023, following an application by the UK CPS Barrowman, together with Baroness Mone, consented to a court order restricting about £75m of assets linked to Barrowman and Mone. [28]
Barrowman has four children from his first two marriages. He married Michelle Mone in 2020. [29] [6]
The Prince's Trust Doug Barrowman Centre in the Ancoats area of Manchester opened in 2019 following a donation by Barrowman of £2 million to the Prince's Trust. [30] [31]
Barrowman has six homes, a collection of fifteen cars and a private jet. [32] He was featured on a 2015 episode of the television series Million Pound Mega Yacht, [33] [34] [35] featuring his 55-metre yacht named Turquoise.
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with expensive grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Their sports cars are regarded as a British cultural icon. Aston Martin has held a Royal Warrant as purveyor of motorcars to Charles III since 1982, and has over 160 car dealerships in 53 countries, making it a global automobile brand. The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. In 2003 it received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade. The company has survived seven bankruptcies throughout its history.
The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is a series of UK tax reliefs launched in 1994 in succession to the Business Expansion Scheme. It is designed to encourage investments in small unquoted companies carrying on a qualifying trade in the United Kingdom.
Roadchef Motorways Limited is a company which operates 21 motorway service areas in the United Kingdom. It is the third-largest motorway service area operator in the country, behind Moto and Welcome Break and followed by Extra.
A venture capital trust or VCT is a tax efficient UK closed-end collective investment scheme designed to provide venture capital for small expanding companies, and income and/or capital gains for investors. VCTs are a form of publicly traded private equity, comparable to investment trusts in the UK or business development companies in the United States. They were introduced by the Conservative government in the Finance Act 1995 to encourage investment into new UK businesses.
Sir David Eardley Garrard is a retired British property developer.
Sir Rodney Malcolm Aldridge is the founder and former executive chairman of Capita, a British company specialising in business process outsourcing.
Ultimo was a Glasgow-headquartered designer lingerie brand, majority owned by Sri Lanka–based lingerie group MAS Holdings. It was founded in 1996 by Michelle Mone, via her company MJM International Ltd., with her then-husband Michael. In 2013, after their marriage collapsed, Ultimo was transferred to joint venture company Ultimo Brands International Ltd, an equal partnership between Michelle Mone and MAS Holdings. In November 2014, Mone sold the majority of her stake to MAS Holdings. In August 2015, Mone resigned from the boards of MJM International Ltd and Ultimo Brands International Ltd.
Malcolm Victor Gauntlett was an English petrochemical entrepreneur and car enthusiast, best known for forming the largest independent petrol retail business in the United Kingdom, and for reviving Aston Martin.
Michelle Georgina Mone, Baroness Mone, is a Scottish businesswoman and life peer. She has set up several businesses, including MJM International Ltd in 1996 and the lingerie company Ultimo along with her then husband Michael Mone. Other ventures include naturopathic 'weight-loss' pills, and a fake tan product via Ultimo Beauty.
Nicholas Anthony Christopher Candy and Christian Peter Candy are British luxury property developers. The brothers were estimated to share a joint net worth of £1.5 billion in the Estates Gazette rich list 2010, placing them at position 52 in the list of the richest property developers in the United Kingdom.
Theodore Thomas More Agnew, Baron Agnew of Oulton, is a British businessman, Conservative life peer and former Minister of State at the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. He also founded the Inspiration Trust, and is the Trust's former chairman.
Mark Alan Williams-Thomas is an English investigative journalist, sexual abuse victim advocate, and former police officer. He is a regular reporter on This Morning and Channel 4 News, as well as the ITV series Exposure and the ITV and Netflix crime series The Investigator: A British Crime Story.
Ve Global ("Ve"), formerly Ve Interactive, was a technology company based in London which has about 400+ staff.
James Nicholas Bethell, 5th Baron Bethell is a British hereditary peer and Conservative politician in the House of Lords. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care and was involved in negotiating various controversial contracts.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the UK Government introduced various public health and economic measures to mitigate its impact. Devolution meant that the four nations' administrative responses to the pandemic differed; the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive produced different policies to those that apply in England. Numerous laws were enacted or introduced throughout the crisis.
Project Birch is the British government's bailout plan to help save companies that are critical to the British economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced in May 2020. As of September 2020, only one company has qualified for help.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the British government decided in March 2020 to rapidly place contracts and recruit a number of individuals. Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) were a particular political issue for the second Johnson ministry. This led to the awarding of a number of contracts without a competitive tendering process, and friends of political figures and people who had made political donations were quickly given contracts. As a result, accusations of cronyism were made against the government.
Oliver Bonas is a UK-based homeware and fashion chain. Founded in 1993 by Oliver Tress, as of 2023, there are 83 stores in the UK. Tress is the chief executive. It is headquartered in Chessington, South West London.
The following is a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom from July 2022 to December 2022.
The following is a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom in 2024.