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The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone - S01E02 HD (TvShows) The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone 27th May Full Episode - The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone today episode
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The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone - S01E02 HD (TvShows) The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone 27th May Full Episode - The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone today episode
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00:00One day when I was at work in the news section, a news page landed on my desk.
00:13It was a story about Ultimo, and I believe the top line was something like new Ultimo
00:19bra is the next best thing to a boob job.
00:23And then there was a picture of a model in a bra.
00:26The headline, you know, ultimately was women still selling bras.
00:29So I didn't think it merited a place in the news section of the paper.
00:34And the story didn't run.
00:36I wasn't a big fan of the way Michelle was promoting the business and the way she was
00:41targeting women's insecurities with that.
00:45Being quite young and a little bit silly, I alluded to the situation in a post on Facebook.
00:52I mean, classic error.
00:59The problem was that Michelle was upset and had phoned up the editor and shouted about
01:07how upset she was that some people who she'd never met had had a conversation saying they
01:11really thought she wasn't very nice.
01:13I didn't I didn't really think it was a big deal.
01:17But then when my union suggested I might write a letter of apology to Michelle Moan, I realised
01:26that this maybe was a bigger deal than I thought.
01:29And that this was someone who was going to start to try and make my life difficult.
01:35But not just my life, the life of various other people who had posted comments underneath
01:41mine on Facebook.
01:45Businesswoman Baroness Michelle Moan has sent me an extraordinarily aggressive message complaining
01:50that a company she's helping isn't getting the multi-million pound contracts it deserves.
01:56When I read the extracts from Matt Hancock's book, it just seemed absolutely mad that she
02:00would still just be conducting herself in the same way when there was these huge contracts
02:05at stake.
02:06I am going to blow this all wide open, she threatened.
02:09I, Michelle Baroness Moan, do swear by almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true
02:21allegiance.
02:22How would you describe Michelle in three words?
02:26Impossible to ignore.
02:28Style over substance.
02:30I have a much anger being defamatory.
02:32Shameless, self-promoting grifter.
02:38This is one of Britain's most extraordinary business stories.
02:41Michelle Moan is 29 and made millions from a gel-filled bra.
02:46About a woman from humble beginnings.
02:48No matter where you're from, look at me, you can do it.
02:51It's Michelle Moan.
02:53Who fought to become one of Britain's most celebrated female entrepreneurs.
02:57It's tough and there's a lot of people out there to put you down.
03:01I mean, I'm not frightened off by it because I've always got something up my sleeve.
03:05Reaching the upper echelons of the British establishment.
03:08My goodness, Michelle, who knows what you're stepping into?
03:13She's now embroiled in one of COVID's biggest scandals.
03:17How did Baroness Moan end up with nearly £30 million of taxpayers' money in her bank account?
03:26But is she a villain or a victim?
03:29We've been their scapegoats and they have destroyed our lives for over two years.
03:34Mr Gove, why didn't you call out Baroness Moan's lies?
03:38This is all a cocktail of fame, lies, money, politics, national emergency.
03:46It's got all the ingredients of a modern day fairy tale.
03:49But when you lifted the covers away, there was something disturbing about the fairy tale.
03:56Four words.
03:58How did that happen?
04:00I think this is the millionaire because she's got a nice smile.
04:16I think this lady's the millionaire because she looks happy and rich.
04:21She looks like she's thinking in her mind that I'm so happy for myself that I'm a millionaire now
04:29and I've got so much money and I can buy anything.
04:36A decade on from first launching her Ultimo bra,
04:39Michelle Moan has become one of Britain's most celebrated female entrepreneurs.
04:44Nearly 1,000 local and national heroes have been recommended to the Queen for a New Year's honour.
04:49And one of the winners is Michelle Moan, the founder and co-owner of lingerie brand Ultimo.
04:54She's been given an OBE for services to the lingerie industry.
04:58The nod of recognition from the palace bolsters Michelle's status.
05:03It's just been an amazing day. It just feels like a wedding day.
05:07And I'm over the moon, absolutely over the moon.
05:12In 2010, Michelle was awarded an OBE.
05:15It wasn't particularly controversial at the time.
05:18I mean, I know in some business circles people raised some eyebrows
05:21because they felt it was perhaps an award for self-promotion and PR
05:26rather than for outstanding business success.
05:29This is dedicated to all the Ultimo team back at home
05:33and all the people from Scotland and Glasgow.
05:36I'm really, really proud.
05:39Michelle may have been projecting an image of success,
05:42but in her personal life back in Glasgow, the reality is different.
05:48Lawyers for the Ultimo lingerie tycoon Michelle Moan
05:51have confirmed that she and her husband Michael are to separate.
05:54The couple will continue to work together in their business MGM International.
06:01One of the stresses and strains towards the end of Michael and Michelle's marriage
06:06came from the fact that Michelle as a woman felt great about being able to be the brand face
06:14and actually model some lingerie or swimwear.
06:18For Michelle, it was exciting again because she got to reclaim her 18, 19, 20-year-old self.
06:24She was a model when Michael met her.
06:27And so this was great for a woman to go,
06:30Oh, look, after three kids, I can still do this.
06:35That was absolutely not something that Michael, her husband, wanted to see her do.
06:39Michael would have preferred for his wife not to be the face of the company in lingerie and swimwear.
06:46Michael clearly had had enough of the stress and strain of Michelle now promoting Michelle.
06:56You look fabulous.
06:58You look incredibly well, beautifully slim, and you're very happy.
07:01Yeah, a day at a time.
07:03You know, myself and my husband did unfortunately split up at Christmas time.
07:08Yeah, he went away with my designer and heartbroken for five months.
07:13But, you know, onwards and upwards, you've just got to move forward.
07:17No more tears.
07:19Well, actually, we did speak to your husband.
07:21He's not here to defend himself, so we can't talk much more about that.
07:24It's fantastic that you're looking so great, feeling brilliant.
07:28Thank you so much for coming in today.
07:31And hope to see you again.
07:32I'm sure I will as you continue with your rise.
07:36Her marriage had broken down very, you know, acrimoniously.
07:40She'd been claiming that her husband had an affair when he was absolutely adamant he hadn't.
07:45They had a starved relationship until their marriage had broken down.
07:48And that really was the start of a slightly negative narrative.
07:54As Michelle and Michael's relationship deteriorates, their staff are caught in the crossfire.
08:00My take on the general atmosphere in the East Kilbride office, as far as the staff was concerned,
08:06it was a mix of sadness and disappointment by those who had been with them, you know, for so many years,
08:14and a lot of tension.
08:18When their divorce is finalised, Michelle buys Michael out of the company
08:22and partners with a Sri Lankan clothing manufacturer.
08:26It was quite clear they both wanted to take control of the company.
08:30She was obviously working on the premise that if she got control of the company, she would have all the staff.
08:37One employee who starts having problems with Michelle is her operations director of ten years, Scott Kilday.
08:46Scott was basically unhappy with his working experience at MGM,
08:50and he was looking at what his options might be if that unhappiness deepened.
08:57On one particular day, he phoned me to say that he'd just discovered a recording device in a plant pot in his room.
09:06I don't remember any client at any point in my career ever making a similar phone call to me. It was exceptional.
09:14She thought Scott was in Michael's camp when they were trying to move the business forward.
09:20That's the recording device, and there is attached to it a wire which was wrapped around one of the plant pots.
09:27I think his main reaction when he first phoned me was what you might call incredulity. He could not believe it.
09:33And frankly, I was horrified that they were doing that.
09:37What we learnt at the employment tribunal was that one of the Sri Lankan investors had authorised the placing of the bug.
09:44It was his decision to put the bug in, and he'd left the logistics to the people on the ground,
09:49including Mrs Moan.
09:52As far as I understood it, they were putting the bug there to see if he was leaving,
09:58and also whether he was sharing information with anyone about the company's business.
10:05Scott was very pleased to win because he felt he'd been badly treated.
10:08What they did, in my opinion, was a very gross breach of his privacy and a gross breach of trust.
10:20Despite her legal challenges, Michelle continues to remain in the public eye.
10:26Welcome back. Next to face the chaser is one of the United Kingdom's most successful female entrepreneurs.
10:31It's Michelle Moan.
10:35Michelle Moan has been a successful female entrepreneur for over 30 years.
10:39She's been a leading entrepreneur in the United Kingdom,
10:42and next to her is one of the United Kingdom's most successful female entrepreneurs.
10:45It's Michelle Moan.
10:49And she is also starting to re-evaluate her future.
10:53When Michael and Michelle divorced during the process,
10:59it was, as you would expect, a time of hurt, a time of grief, a time of self-analysis.
11:09And I will tell you, as we've all seen in the press,
11:12Michelle typically doesn't look like a person who's going to calm down and sit and self-reflect.
11:21She flew over to Florida, and we did a week of very, very deep introspection that Michelle is not comfortable doing.
11:34I brought my entire team together, and we did do what is known as the Lovelight Solutions work, S-O-U-L-U-T-I-O-N-S,
11:44digging into the soul.
11:46How are you connected to the divine, Michelle?
11:49These are not comfortable topics for a lot of people,
11:52and not comfortable necessarily for the East End of Glasgow on its way up.
11:56It's like, no, let's go.
11:58Who am I now?
12:00Who am I without Michael?
12:02Untwisting those beliefs we hold about ourselves that are the limiting beliefs,
12:08so Michelle could release herself from those unconscious constraints and create her next phase.
12:22The seeds for Michelle's next move were actually being planted in 2012.
12:28Her knack for publicity is about to put her at the centre of a political battle brewing in Scotland.
12:34David Cameron and Alex Salmond meet today as two leaders in one United Kingdom.
12:40They both know they could in future meet as leaders of two foreign nations.
12:48In a historic move, Prime Minister David Cameron and Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond
12:54agreed to a referendum on whether Scotland should become independent from the United Kingdom.
13:00The two men have agreed on a simple yes-no vote on independence.
13:04No other question will be asked.
13:06And they've agreed that it must be held before December 2014.
13:11I think for most people, Michelle came onto the political scene
13:15and made a political stand around the time of the independence referendum.
13:21Lingerie tycoon Michelle Moan says she's withdrawing her support over Labour's economic policies.
13:26She had been a supporter of the Labour Party,
13:29but later defected to the Conservatives shortly before they were elected in 2010.
13:36And David Cameron really promoted her.
13:40We're talking number 10 here, so the surroundings are quite imposing.
13:45It's a set-up so that people understand that if they have been invited into number 10
13:51for a meeting with the Prime Minister, then this is a moment of some significance.
13:59David Cameron has invited Scottish business leaders,
14:04including Michelle, to share their views on the campaign against independence,
14:08which his government is backing.
14:11Michelle Moan just physically, as a woman, stood out in the room.
14:17She came away with this quite remarkable line about the campaign,
14:24and she said, you know, you remind me of my bratty.
14:29Some would have bristled slightly at it.
14:32I remember I made a particular quip just to take a bit of the tension out of it
14:39and saying, well, yes, we're all about wanting to improve support.
14:44I think that's a good thing.
14:46I think that's a good thing.
14:48I think that's a good thing.
14:50I think that's a good thing.
14:52I think that's a good thing.
14:54Yes, we're all about wanting to improve support.
14:58I think she would have felt that she'd achieved what she was there to do,
15:02she'd been noticed.
15:06You're one of a small number of self-starting entrepreneurs
15:09who've come out for a no.
15:11I am so passionate about Scotland.
15:13I love Scotland to death, but I don't think that this is the answer.
15:17And I would say if there's too much risk in any business, don't do it.
15:20I certainly don't remember her having any formal role within the campaign,
15:25but she took a role in her own right.
15:28In terms of being a woman in business in Scotland
15:31who is known to the press and media already,
15:35anything she said was going to be news.
15:38Isn't it hard to say that you passionately love Scotland
15:41and yet at the same time say that you will leave the country
15:44if the vote doesn't go your way?
15:46That's my belief and I don't want to be part of something that I don't believe in.
15:50What was interesting about Michelle is that she said
15:54she would leave the country if Scotland voted yes.
15:57So it was interesting, like everything else in her business life,
16:01she made it very personal to her.
16:04It's a movement and it's a movement for social democracy.
16:07The winner in all this is social democracy.
16:09I think we're the envy of the world.
16:11I think the world is looking at us slightly agog at what's going on in Scotland.
16:15I am so proud of our country.
16:17We're all passionate about Scotland, whether you're in the yes camp or the no camp.
16:21I'm exceptionally passionate about Scotland.
16:23I grew up in the east end of Glasgow and I've built my companies here.
16:26So I am Team Scotland, but I'm in the yes camp.
16:30Do you think that...
16:31No camp.
16:32I just had to remind her.
16:36We've got a convert.
16:38Isn't that wonderful?
16:39Live on television we have a convert.
16:45No.
16:56Is he behind?
16:57No.
16:58Is he not?
16:59No, but no.
17:00Scotland says yes!
17:04There was an enormous amount of hostility towards anyone
17:08who stuck their head above the parapet.
17:10And that might be on social media, it would be on the street.
17:14What have I done?
17:19It's the only time in my life I've ever actually been spat at.
17:23The fact that she put herself out there, she would have been a target.
17:28You have been vocal about your decision to vote no
17:30and you've received a lot of backlash for that.
17:32Are you surprised by that?
17:34You know, I've got about 800,000 people on Twitter
17:37and, you know, the sort of abuse that I am getting is off the scale.
17:43The people of Scotland are finally able to cast their votes
17:46to decide whether Scotland should be an independent country.
17:51After two years of campaigning and passionate debate,
17:54the people of Scotland are finally able to cast their votes
17:57to decide whether Scotland should be an independent country.
18:01The majority of valid votes cast yesterday by the people of Scotland
18:05in response to the referendum question,
18:08should Scotland be an independent country,
18:11we're in favour of no.
18:21The people of Scotland have turned down the offer of independence
18:26and voted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
18:37With Michelle on the winning side,
18:39she starts to signal a greater interest in politics.
18:48David Cameron had beaten Alex Salmond and the Yes campaign in Scotland.
18:53The following year, he'd beaten Labour in the general election.
18:56He was a winner.
18:58When I stood here five years ago,
19:00our country was in the grip of an economic crisis.
19:03Five years on, Britain is so much stronger.
19:06But the real opportunities lie ahead.
19:09Post the independence referendum,
19:11David Cameron wanted to sort of promote the union.
19:17Hey-ho, Michelle suddenly announced
19:20there's being a new business start-up set up for the UK.
19:24Businesswoman Michelle Moan has been appointed to the role,
19:27looking specifically at disadvantaged communities,
19:30because of her own story.
19:32I have been there, done it, read the book, got the T-shirt,
19:35all the tears and snotters as well along the way, so I understand.
19:45I think what you've got to remember about David Cameron
19:48is that he's a good PR man.
19:50We are lucky enough to have the Prime Minister in the studio tonight.
19:54Alongside him, we have one of Britain's foremost businesswomen,
19:57the founder and chief executive of Ultimo Bras, Michelle Moan.
20:00He knew he had to turn the Conservative Party round
20:03and modernise its image,
20:05and he obviously thought he could apply the same in Scotland
20:08by bringing in some fresh faces,
20:10and Michelle would have been one of them.
20:12I've got a very talented bunch of Members of Parliament,
20:15140 of whom were elected at the last election,
20:17and it's right that some of them should be serving in the government,
20:20so it's an opportunity to bring forward some fresh talent.
20:23Women and Northerners, I noticed.
20:25You had a problem with Tara Power?
20:27We shall, actually.
20:29Somebody somewhere whispered in his ear
20:31that this would be a smart idea.
20:33She's got the great story we all know about,
20:36poor background, successful young entrepreneur,
20:38a woman in a man's world.
20:40Tick, tick, tick.
20:43When the Tsar ship was announced, alarm bells started ringing with me.
20:48I was editor at The Herald at the time.
20:50I knew about her business background
20:52and it wasn't the success that people had been led to believe.
20:55So MGM International was always a small business,
20:59and these accounts bear that out.
21:02In 2010, they had a turnover of £10.1 million.
21:06It never got any greater than that.
21:102009, they had a profit after tax of £674,000.
21:16The following year, 2010, that was reduced to £481,000.
21:22And then, as you go through the accounts,
21:242011, that profit for the financial year fell to just below £1,500.
21:31It's 2012, they posted a loss of over half a million pounds.
21:35And so, by that time, the company was in real trouble.
21:40She was often referred to as a business tycoon.
21:43Now, if you look up tycoon in a dictionary,
21:46it doesn't say somebody running a small business with abbreviated accounts.
21:50She wasn't the hugely successful entrepreneur that she said she was.
21:56And our guest of the day is a woman who pulled herself up
21:59by the bra straps, Michelle Moon,
22:01founder of the £43 million Ultima Lingerie Empire.
22:06We'll talk to her a little bit later.
22:09What she was very adept at doing was portraying something,
22:14not always filling in all the facts,
22:17but then allowing the journalists
22:20to maybe fill in the facts for themselves.
22:23What's the right figure?
22:2555, not 43.
22:27OK, what do you say?
22:29I don't know. It depends when you sell it. I'm not going to sell.
22:32She helped to create a mirage and many people bought into that.
22:36The business wasn't quite what we were being told it was,
22:39but you gave her the benefit of the doubt
22:41because she's a female entrepreneur in a man's world
22:44and we wanted her to succeed.
22:46We arguably should have done more
22:49in the sense that the business story wasn't truly being told.
23:04So, a long time had passed since I'd been involved with Michelle,
23:09although I kept an eye on her.
23:11I got a call one day from a Conservative peer
23:14who's a very good friend of mine and I've done a lot of work with.
23:17And he said to me, um...
23:21..I'm just phoning you on the off chance,
23:23do you know a woman called Michelle Moan?
23:26And I think I groaned when he said so.
23:28And he went, oh, right.
23:30I said, why?
23:31And he said, there's a proposal to make her a peer.
23:35And I honestly burst out laughing.
23:38And he went, but we've been told that she's a multimillionaire,
23:42and she's one of the most successful businesswomen
23:45ever to come out of Scotland.
23:47So, I went through the history, the fantasy world,
23:51the money they had lost and all the things she'd done.
23:55He said, oh, this is very serious.
23:57He said, that would be a real embarrassment.
23:59I said, anyway, who's pushing this?
24:02And he said, um, David Cameron and George Osborne.
24:08I said, why?
24:11He said, well, David Cameron...
24:14..believes that they need, A, more Scottish Tory peers...
24:21..and more females.
24:25I remember thinking at the time,
24:27Cameron and Osborne have completely lost the plot here,
24:31as they lost the plot to quite a lot of things.
24:35In the summer of 2015, Michelle announces her departure from Ultimo.
24:48So, the next phase in Michelle's life,
24:50after that few years of self-reflection,
24:53recreation, deciding who she's going to be,
24:56part of that involved moving to London.
24:59She had taken a beautiful place,
25:01overlooking the Thames, right next to the Tower.
25:04Elegant, a great statement to herself of, now, here we are.
25:10There we see London, here I am.
25:14She was going to begin mentoring other young entrepreneurs,
25:18and so we began to lead weekends in that apartment
25:22of just small private groups of folks
25:25who wanted to be able to do what she did.
25:32That's also the time I sat with her.
25:36I can still see, we're having glasses of wine,
25:38it was past twilight, I think, overlooking the river,
25:42when she said,
25:43Ted, I've got to talk to you about the fact
25:45that David Cameron just called me.
25:49And you can't say anything about this yet,
25:52because I haven't decided what to do yet.
25:57But he's asked me to be in Lourdes.
26:01And can you imagine us sitting there,
26:05overlooking the twinkling lights of London and the river,
26:07going, look at you, my dear.
26:11Look at you.
26:13From the East End, from the mortgaged house,
26:16from all the financial trials and tribulations,
26:19all the ups and downs in the press,
26:22and here you are, girl.
26:26What an amazing place to be.
26:28That was a critical moment in time in her life.
26:39Life school at 15, like a non-starter,
26:42written off already.
26:46It's been an incredible amount of hard work
26:49and lots of risk.
26:53I was determined to make something of myself.
26:59But I was able to do it.
27:17To the Right Honourable David Cameron,
27:1910 Downing Street. Dear Mr Cameron,
27:22I have never written to any politician before.
27:25I feel compelled to write to you.
27:27time businesswoman with a PR exposure far in excess of any actual success.
27:34Douglas Anderson is Managing Director of Gap Group, a business with annual revenues of
27:38£150 million, employing 1,300 people. He's written to the Prime Minister condemning the
27:44appointment.
27:45In my opinion, business is 95% graft, 4% luck and 1% glamour, and I think she should stick
27:53to the glamour end of it.
27:55I'm a proud Scottish person and I don't like anybody, but I especially don't like Scottish
28:04people being less than truthful.
28:10The only thing she achieved was self-publicity. I don't think that's a very good reason to
28:16put you into the House of Lords. If you follow that logic then the House of Lords will be
28:22full of influencers in the next 10 years.
28:33Clearly achieved zero. Made me feel a bit better, but it doesn't count for much.
28:52Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
29:10Ireland and of our other realms and territories, Queen, know ye that we, of our special grace,
29:18do by these presents advance, create and prefer our trusty and well-beloved Michelle
29:24Georgina Moan, officer of our most excellent order of the British Empire, to the state,
29:31degree, style, dignity, title and honour of Baroness Moan of Mayfair in our city of Westminster,
29:38to have and to hold unto her for her life.
29:42I think when Michelle stepped into the Lords in that world, it was completely different
29:48than the world she had lived in before.
29:51I, Michelle, Baroness Moan, do swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true
29:59allegiance.
30:01In all honesty, Michelle wasn't really ever involved in politics and she wasn't, she doesn't
30:08have the public school background and the advanced degrees.
30:16So it was a whole new world.
30:23Most Scottish peers will choose a kind of Scottish town or a name or something related
30:30to family, but no, it had to be Mayfair for her.
30:32She would have endeared herself to the Scottish public if she had said she would like to be
30:36known as Baroness Moan of Deniston.
30:40They would have loved that in that area, but no, she'd moved on from that.
30:48With Michelle making inroads into the establishment, her personal life is also on an upward trajectory.
30:55I've got five homes around the world and this is certainly the biggest.
31:00Not as rough as Scots get from Glasgow, really, you know, but there you go.
31:06In 2016, Michelle announces her relationship with billionaire Doug Barrowman.
31:12That boat is turquoise, a complete replica of what the real yacht looks like.
31:17I always like to smile when I go on board and stop smiling only when I leave.
31:22You have to spend it on something.
31:25There's a limit to how many houses you can have and private air travel.
31:29Doug is the founder of the Knox Group of companies, which deal in financial services.
31:36Companies linked to the Knox Group have been called out for promoting tax avoidance schemes,
31:41which were later outlawed by the government.
31:43And we talked about at the design stage, you were going to build a touch and go helipad.
31:47Have you incorporated that?
31:48I haven't actually.
31:49It's found something that I haven't done.
31:53You could say it's more a gimmick than a practical usable thing, but it's one of those boxes
31:59that you are of this size could have.
32:02Yeah, I mean, it's possible.
32:03We can put it on, whether it would really get used.
32:07That's a nice problem to have.
32:10Doug lives in the tax-friendly Isle of Man.
32:17After Michelle moves in, she shares her opulent lifestyle on social media.
32:24A clean, organised, perfect...
32:28...dressing room.
32:29Yee-haw.
32:36Doug may have amassed a fortune, but that doesn't stop him and Michelle from looking
32:41into new opportunities to make money.
32:44New cryptocurrencies are still being minted.
32:46Baroness Michelle Moan and the investor Doug Byrman have launched a new one, especially
32:50for venture capitalists.
32:52They join me now.
32:53In 2017, there was this massive explosion of interest in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other
33:00so-called cryptocurrencies.
33:02Some of them were seeing, you know, literally tens of thousands of percentage point increases
33:08in value and everyone wanted to get in.
33:11A cryptocurrency, Richard, you can do it three ways.
33:14So, number one, you can trade it like any other cryptocurrency, two, you can hold it
33:18or three, you can invest in the businesses that Doug has put together, this board of
33:23highly successful global entrepreneurs.
33:28I quite like writing stories about people who are considered to be kind of baddies and
33:35I like sometimes finding humanity in those baddies and sometimes just digging up dirt
33:42on the baddies.
33:44When we talk about Bitcoin, the first thing that jumps out at me is that it's always been
33:47tarred with that sort of underworld brush.
33:50So everything is transparent, everything is on a ledger and I wouldn't be getting involved
33:54with anything, being a baroness in the House of Lords, if anything was dodgy.
33:59I'm always very sceptical about people who are getting involved in the world of crypto
34:04because it was a complete Wild West, like there was absolutely no regulation.
34:09We got an anonymous tip from someone in the Isle of Man saying that there's some weird
34:16stuff going on around Michelle Moan and Doug Barrowman's company and that we should look
34:21into it.
34:23Jemima notices a payment dispute unfolding between Michelle and Doug's company and their
34:28so-called bounty hunters, who are freelancers hired to promote Equicapital online.
34:35The bounty hunters were told that they were going to get $10,000 to share between them,
34:39which would make for less than $10 each.
34:42When some of these people started kicking up a fuss, they were threatened with police,
34:46they were kind of warned not to defame Equi.
34:49It got really quite sinister.
34:56It was Jemima's next discovery that would provoke the biggest response.
35:01They then announced that Steve Wozniak was joining Equi.
35:06And Michelle Moan announces this on her Twitter account, saying that she can't believe it,
35:11but this teenage idol of hers, Steve Wozniak, is joining as a co-founder.
35:18Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, regarded as quite a kind of legend in the world of tech.
35:24And he'd actually left Apple in 85 when Michelle Moan was 13 years old.
35:31The idea that as a teenager growing up in Glasgow, she had idolized Steve Wozniak sounded
35:35a bit off.
35:37So we decided to look in her autobiography to see whether she had mentioned her adoration
35:43for Steve Wozniak.
35:44It turned out that she mentioned Richard Branson a couple of times, and she mentioned Sylvester
35:50Stallone four times.
35:52And that seemed to be her real idol.
35:55At this point, you know, it's very silly kind of, you know, I'm investigating who her idol
36:00is.
36:01It's not exactly hard-hitting journalism.
36:03But at the same time, she is a baroness, and she does stand as a peer in the House of Lords.
36:09We should expect these people to tell us the truth.
36:13Jemima approaches Michelle for comment.
36:18I had this person, Heather, replying and saying that she was the press officer to Michelle
36:22Moan.
36:23And I don't know this person's surname, so I have no proof that this person exists.
36:27So I did kind of wonder whether this was, you know, Michelle Moan herself.
36:32The emails came with a UK Parliament disclaimer at the bottom.
36:36So it was clear that this was coming from some kind of parliamentary email system.
36:42It was just an odd thing to be getting threatening emails from, you know, a peer of the realm.
36:51I got an email saying that I'd become obsessed with Michelle Moan, which in all fairness
36:55is partly true.
36:57Increasingly, I was kind of threatened with lawyers basically trying to get us to stand down.
37:04It was all quite kind of scary.
37:09My editor said, this is absolutely absurd.
37:11We should use this in the story.
37:20We take quite a solid stand on these kinds of things, and we're not going to be intimidated
37:24by someone's celebrity lawyers.
37:28It seemed to me that she was kind of someone willing to go to any lengths to make money.
37:34She's completely shameless.
37:35And I think if you have no shame, you can get quite far.
37:43It's been confirmed that a mysterious new virus that has killed four people in China
37:56can be passed from person to person.
37:57The first cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK.
38:01There have now been four deaths from coronavirus in the UK.
38:06759 have died.
38:085,300.
38:0916,039.
38:10728 have now died.
38:16Thousands of frontline doctors are still not getting the personal protection equipment
38:19they need to treat patients with coronavirus.
38:22The Doctors' Union says it means some medics are likely to become very ill and some may
38:27die.
38:28This is a box of masks that we've been using today.
38:34You can see the white sticker saying 2019.
38:41So that's out of date.
38:43The sticker that they've covered up the out-of-date sticker with is out of date.
38:50No aprons?
38:51No problem.
38:52Bit bad.
38:53I never thought I'd be in a first-world country, you know, wearing plastic aprons.
38:59We do fear for our lives.
39:00PPE!
39:01PPE!
39:02PPE!
39:03PPE!
39:04Much like the rest of Britain, Michelle and Doug spend most of 2020 at home.
39:19They enthusiastically clap for the NHS from their estate on the Isle of Man.
39:26Despite the distance, Michelle keeps the public informed about how she's coping.
39:32Hello, Michelle.
39:33Hello!
39:34I'm here.
39:35Hello!
39:36Ah, lovely to see you.
39:37Now, it looks very glamorous where you are.
39:39Tell us, where in the world are you?
39:41Well, we're in our home on the Isle of Man.
39:43We were getting married on May the 2nd, but obviously that was postponed.
39:47And I was determined to fit into my dress.
39:50We'll do a boot camp outside, so you actually don't need to have, you know, your own professional
39:56gym.
39:57Now, lucky we have that, but you don't need to do that.
39:59A lot of small businesses are struggling at the moment.
40:02How's business for you?
40:03It is absolute hell out there.
40:06I'm not going to deny it.
40:08And it's really bad for people.
40:10But if you are negative, it will just get worse.
40:15And I know that that's easy for me to say, look at me sitting here.
40:20But you've just got to be as positive as you can.
40:27The pandemic may be hitting many industries, but one sector is proving particularly lucrative.
40:34A global shortage of medical protective equipment, PPE, means the government starts awarding
40:41multi-million pound contracts to those able to supply the goods.
40:48And some people are starting to ask questions.
40:54I'm Joe Maugham.
40:55I'm a case counsel and I direct the Good Law Project.
40:58We spend time trying to keep the governors honest.
41:02They certainly need to be held to account.
41:05I was starting to have questions in my mind about the basis upon which vast sums of public
41:10money were leaving the public purse and finding their way into the bank accounts of rather
41:17odd people.
41:19Then somebody sent us a raft of internal government documents which referred to the
41:26existence of a VIP lane.
41:31The VIP lane seems to give selected companies higher priority when bidding for multi-million
41:37pound PPE contracts.
41:40They had created a special team of civil servants to deal with VIPs.
41:47And the work that we did suggested that VIPs were being paid much higher prices than non-VIPs.
41:58Jolion may have found proof of a VIP lane, but he doesn't know who's getting the preferential
42:03treatment.
42:05His suspicion is it's companies with links to the Conservative Party, and one company
42:10in particular catches his attention.
42:14We first became interested in PPMedPro in about October 2020 because there was a publication
42:20of a contract and I spotted a connection with Doug Barrowman, who I knew from my days as
42:29a tax lawyer, who I certainly thought of as something of a rogue.
42:37Jolion shares his findings with journalists who also want to know which companies are
42:42benefiting from the VIP lane.
42:45The Good Law Project was extremely smart at just seeing that there were connections from
42:54this company, PPMedPro, to people who worked for Doug Barrowman.
43:00All UK companies have to be registered on this public register called Companies House.
43:07We could see that the directors of the company work for Michelle Moan's husband, Doug Barrowman,
43:13his firm in the Isle of Man, and one of them actually worked for Michelle Moan's Amedia
43:20activities company.
43:23I did think that is really quite interesting, that there are links to this Conservative
43:32member of the House of Lords, Michelle Moan, because if it was true, then it was evidence
43:39that the government was giving £100m contracts to people politically connected to them.
43:51So I just emailed the press at michellemoan.com and said the VIP lane is for companies who
43:58are recommended by people with connections to the government or the Conservative Party.
44:05Was that you, because you're a Conservative member of the House of Lords?
44:09Very very quickly we just got a really serious legal letter absolutely denying any connection
44:18of Michelle Moan to PPMedPro, with a threat that if you go on and publish this, then you'll
44:27be defaming Michelle Moan because you'll be reporting something that isn't true.
44:32So for me, there was nothing really more that we could do.
44:37In November 2020, Michelle and Doug finally get the glamorous wedding ceremony they'd
44:42been hoping for.
44:45Something Michelle posts on her social media, alongside other updates of her and Doug's
44:50luxurious travels.
44:59I think it was in the summer of 2021, so still in the pandemic, and she had literally posted
45:05a picture of herself on a yacht, and it was called Lady M. And she'd posted this thing
45:11saying business can be challenging, but it is rewarding.
45:19Back in London, Jolyon Maugham is still trying to get the government to disclose who was
45:24in the VIP lane.
45:27So we were starting to build a list.
45:29I think we had maybe nine, ten contracts that we knew had been run through the VIP lane.
45:36We wanted to know the names of all of the companies on the VIP lane, and we wanted to
45:42know who had referred them into the VIP lane.
45:45So we had this mammoth Freedom of Information Act battle with government.
45:51The Department of Health published this list in November 2021.
45:57On that list is PP Medpro, and the person who referred it was Baroness Moe.
46:07When a name appeared on that list, then we did feel really strongly actually, I must
46:12admit, we did actually feel very strongly then.
46:16We did actually feel like we had been lied to the year before.
46:20I got back in touch with those lawyers on that day and said, what is this?
46:28And part of what they did at that point was start to, what we call, dance on the head
46:33of a pin, saying that, okay, she recommended the company to the government.
46:41Apart from that, she did nothing else in relation to PP Medpro, and there was one very key phrase
46:48that I remember coming from one of the lawyers that said, she has no involvement in the business,
46:54but we got information that she was involved and that Doug Barron was involved.
47:02We did our own freedom of information request, and we got the emails that she'd sent to Michael
47:09Gove and Lord Agnew saying that she was offering to supply PPE through my team in Hong Kong
47:14and that it had gone through the VIP lane.
47:17And we also got some WhatsApp messages that Michelle Moe had sent about the PPE deals,
47:26and she said she was sitting on the jet and it was about to take off, which we assumed
47:32was Bear Jet, their private plane.
47:36And I also got a lot of information from another source about the gowns contract and
47:42the fact that this contract was £122 million that we, our government, had paid for sterile
47:49surgical gowns that are really, really important PPE.
47:53They hadn't been used and that the government and the NHS had rejected them on delivery.
48:01With Michelle's role as a lawmaker at the heart of the controversy, more sources leak
48:05evidence of her links to PPE Medpro to journalists.
48:09My colleague was sent an email from the chief commercial officer of NHS Test and Trace,
48:15and she sent it to colleagues saying that Michelle Moe was going to Michael Gove and
48:20Matt Hancock that day because she was incandescent with rage at the way that PPE Medpro had been
48:27treated.
48:28Now, this is at a time that Michelle Moe was denying any involvement whatsoever with PPE
48:35Medpro.
48:36Not only are journalists uncovering evidence, the National Crime Agency launches an investigation
48:43into PPE Medpro, and several of Michelle and Doug's properties are raided, including their
48:50estate on the Isle of Man.
48:53You're going from the realms of, hmm, that's interesting, to hmm, that's quite a fierce
49:00response of theirs to, oh my God, she's on the list, to the National Crime Agency executing
49:09search warrants on their homes.
49:12Michelle and Doug's lawyers continue to deny the couple's involvement with the company.
49:16We had the evidence that they'd been lying, but they kept doubling down on it, attacking
49:21us, attacking me.
49:26Two years into his investigation, David finally gets evidence of the money trail.
49:33We were leaked a document that had been produced by HSBC Bank, Doug Barrowman's company's bank.
49:42It showed that from the profits of PPE Medpro, at least £65 million had been paid to accounts
49:49of Doug Barrowman and the Isle of Man.
49:52One of the transfers was just about £29 million into the Kerastall Trust, with a K, and the
50:01people who stand to benefit from the money in the trust were Michelle Moan and her three
50:07adult children.
50:22How did his colleague, Baroness Moan, end up with nearly £30 million of taxpayers'
50:35money in her bank account?
50:42Mr Speaker, let me say, like everyone else, I was absolutely shocked to read about the
50:46allegations.
50:47I do hope that she's not on her yacht trying to do a rapper.
51:02There's no question that Michelle Moan and Doug Barrowman became sort of pantomime villains
51:07in the story of the huge shambles of what went wrong with PPE.
51:14For Michelle Moan, public attention, knowing how to grab public attention, is an ability
51:20that she obviously always had in spades during her business career.
51:26But things went wrong for her, and you can't turn that attention off.
51:36As public debate rages over Michelle and Doug's involvement with PPE Medpro, pressure mounts
51:41on the couple to come clean.
51:44They had made this decision that they weren't going to talk about what had happened.
51:48They obviously knew that they had been lying at the beginning of it.
51:52So they felt they couldn't do anything about that, so they were in this trap.
51:56After three years of denials, Michelle and Doug changed their tack.
52:01They commissioned their own glossy YouTube documentary filmed at their estate, finally
52:06admitting the full scale of their involvement in PPE Medpro.
52:10Well, I was a conduit.
52:12I was a liaison person.
52:14I brought it all together.
52:17I wanted the guys to succeed.
52:19I wanted the NHS to succeed.
52:21I wanted a win-win situation for everyone.
52:25They also agreed to do one interview for national television to address the speculation around
52:30their case.
52:32I think that she concluded in the end, it couldn't get any worse.
52:41It was a huge moment for them.
52:45They knew they hadn't been telling the truth.
52:48So what must that feel like?
52:49If you know that you've been involved in a big public lie, and then suddenly you're going
52:53to have this moment, you're going to sit down in a chair and the cameras are going to point
52:55at you, and what are you going to do?
53:00What are you going to do?
53:03On the day, the whole experience was sort of eerily calm.
53:10I'm doing an old-fashioned clap, just excuse me.
53:21I'm set.
53:22OK, happy Jonathan?
53:23Yeah.
53:24Happy?
53:25OK.
53:26Just to be crystal clear, because this is at the heart of it, and I know you want to
53:29get the facts out there.
53:30Sure.
53:31We want to be completely crystal clear.
53:33Do you admit today that with the way that you've currently got your finances set up,
53:39that one day you and your children will benefit from that money?
53:44Because you right now are listed as the beneficiaries of that trust.
53:48If one day, if God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary as
53:56well as his children and my children.
53:59So, yes, of course.
54:01It's almost like a circular argument, Laura, you can never win that one.
54:04But it's important to get to the detail, and you know, by your own admission, by not coming
54:09clean at the beginning, it's left you with this problem where lots of people might be
54:14listening to this and thinking, I really struggle to trust what they're saying.
54:20But that is the truth.
54:23What do you hope that 2024 will bring for you, legally, for your reputations, and for
54:32you personally?
54:34I don't honestly see there's a case to answer.
54:39I can't see what we've done wrong.
54:42But after everything, you can't see what you've done wrong.
54:44When you've admitted today that you lied to the press and by extension you lied to the
54:49public.
54:50That's not a crime.
54:51I'm not involved to protect my family.
54:53Can I just make this clear?
54:55It's not a crime.
55:00In the end, they were, I mean, bizarrely quite honest about not having told the truth, which
55:07is quite a strange experience.
55:10And then as she so memorably said, but Laura, it's not a crime to lie.
55:17Now that's a phrase that will always stick with me.
55:19When she said that, I thought, there's a, there's a thing.
55:25There's a headline.
55:26Michelle Moan and her husband have admitted lying to journalists, but maintain they've
55:31done nothing wrong, saying this was a legitimate business deal that made a legitimate profit.
55:36It wasn't her fault, she says.
55:39No one told her what the rules were.
55:41To take advantage of a situation like that, there's something obscene about it.
55:45Michelle Moan is taking action, legal action against Michelle Moan.
55:48This has been described as a car crash interview on the scale of the Prince Andrew.
56:01After finally admitting her involvement with PPE Metro, Michelle has taken a leave of absence
56:06from the House of Lords and no longer has the conservative whip.
56:12She has done no further media appearances.
56:16She is still under investigation by the National Crime Agency and the government is suing PPE
56:21Metro over the rejected gowns.
56:23Well, I guess you reap what you sow, don't you?
56:26You know, if she has used the rules for personal advantage, huge personal advantage, exploiting
56:37a pandemic in which thousands of people died, people are very angry about that.
56:45It's not...
56:46It's a much more serious matter than, you know, telling a lie about Erin Brockovich's
56:51bra.
56:52I think Michelle Moan's story, what it does tell us about modern Britain is we still like
56:58fairy tales, we want to believe those rags to riches tales, but once you step into the
57:03world of politics, things can get a bit trickier.
57:08It's a parable of excess hubris and then eventually nemesis.
57:14Growing up, could you have imagined yourself as Lady Moan?
57:21No, never in a million, billion, trillion years.
57:26What it shows is that, you know, if you're willing to work hard, take risks now and again,
57:31you can make it.
57:34She was never going to fall back even one step.
57:38Survival.
57:39It's your survival.
57:43You know, I have at the back of my mind that I could lose it all tomorrow.
59:01I'm not going to do it.
59:02I'm not going to do it.
59:03I'm not going to do it.
59:04I'm not going to do it.
59:05I'm not going to do it.
59:06I'm not going to do it.
59:07I'm not going to do it.
59:08I'm not going to do it.
59:09I'm not going to do it.
59:10I'm not going to do it.
59:11I'm not going to do it.
59:12I'm not going to do it.
59:13I'm not going to do it.
59:14I'm not going to do it.
59:15I'm not going to do it.
59:16I'm not going to do it.
59:17I'm not going to do it.
59:18I'm not going to do it.
59:19I'm not going to do it.
59:20I'm not going to do it.
59:21I'm not going to do it.
59:22I'm not going to do it.