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A Spanish businessman received more than $ 28 million (£ 21 million) as part of a “lucrative” deal by a Florida company to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to the UK government, US court documents reveal.
Gabriel González Andersson was hired by Miami-based Saiger to help procure the products in March of this year, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic – according to legal documents.
Saiger was awarded contracts totaling nearly £ 300 million to supply PPE and hand sanitizer during the pandemic, according to the government procurement database Tussell.
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Coronavirus pandemic: NHS frontline
The deal is subject to a separate legal challenge in the UK from activists who say Saiger is a jewelry company with no experience in supplying PPE and that the deals were offered without any competitive bidding process.
Details emerged in court documents related to a dispute between Saiger and Andersson.
The document filed with a Florida court says Michael Saiger established the business earlier this year to help governments secure massive orders for PPE in response to the coronavirus crisis.
They say that at the time, Mr Saiger had “significant experience working with manufacturers and distributors in China” and that, based on this experience, he was “able to secure several lucrative contracts with the UK government”.
Saiger then hired Mr. Andersson to be involved in “procurement, logistics, due diligence, product sourcing and quality control” for the EPP team.
The Spanish businessman “did very well with this arrangement” and was paid $ 28 million, Saiger’s lawyers say.
Court case alleges there was a delay in the supply of PPE to the UK
But Saiger alleges that after a similar deal in June to supply gloves and gowns, for which Andersson would have received $ 21 million (£ 16 million), it “stopped performing any of the required services.”
The Florida company had to “struggle” to complete the job, leading to “business disruptions that delayed the delivery of PPE to healthcare providers and first responders in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Andersson denies the allegations.
Two campaign organizations, Good Law Project and Everydoctor, claim that the government overpaid for goods supplied under the contracts.
Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project, said: “At last we can all see, in black and white, the staggering sums that flow from public coffers into private pockets.
“Who could blame people for joining the queue if the government gives away free money?
“But you and I, and our children, are going to have to pay higher taxes because the incompetence of the government delivered fortunes large enough for the last generations to the shadowy foreign entrepreneurs.”
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Face masks: NHS cannot use £ 252 million supply
DHSC said: “We have been working tirelessly to deliver PPE, delivering over 4.9 billion front-line items so far.
“Nearly 32 billion items have been ordered to provide a continuous supply, which will meet the future needs of health and social care personnel.”
“Due diligence is carried out for all government contracts and we take these controls very seriously.”
Saiger told Sky News in a statement: “We have an extensive network of manufacturing and distribution contacts in Asia and we are an agile and agile company capable of moving quickly.
“These attributes mean that few other providers can match us in speed, quality, or taxpayer value. At the height of the pandemic, and at a time when the NHS needed high-quality PPE that met required safety standards, we delivered for Britain, on time and on courage.
“At no time have we used ‘intermediaries.”
