Court papers in the US say £200m of taxpayers’ money was paid to a firm that had no PPE for the NHS

Michael Saiger

Credit:  Andrew Toth/Getty Images North America

A Spanish businessman was “paid £21 million” by a US jeweller given millions of pounds of taxpayers money to procure personal protective equipment (PPE for the NHS, according to court documents.

Papers filed in a legal battle in Florida allege £200m of taxpayers’ money was paid to a company that had no PPE to sell the UK Government.

Michael Saiger, a Miami-based jeweller, instead paid a Spanish businessman millions of dollars to find Chinese manufacturers of masks, gloves and gowns, then sold them on to the UK for a profit, it is alleged.

Ministers are under pressure to explain why so much public money was spent on PPE contracts fulfilled by companies with no experience of handling medical equipment.

The UK Government faces a legal challenge in UK courts over the contracts, but insists “proper due diligence” was followed.

Documents from a US court claim Mr Saiger successfully secured contracts with the Department of Health worth more than £200 million in March this year.

In a politically controversial move, the contracts were awarded directly to Mr Saiger rather than being tendered competitively.

Mr Saiger says he then paid a business associate, Gabriel Gonzalez Andersson, £21 million to find manufacturers of PPE in China to fulfil the deals he had signed, effectively acting as a fixer.

Mr Andersson denies he was ever paid any money by Mr Saiger’s company, Saiger LLC.

Boxes of PPE were delivered to UK hospitals. Court documents filed by Mr Saiger say Mr Andersson’s role was to help with "procurement, logistics, due diligence, product sourcing and quality control”.

They claim he was paid £21 million for his work. The documents say the contracts were “lucrative” for the two men, and that Mr Andersson had “done very well” out of the deal.

The pair then bid for a second round of NHS contracts in June, which could have seen Mr Andersson pocket another £15 million in consulting fees, according to Mr Saiger.

However, the relationship between the two broke down and the PPE was never delivered.

A medical worker adjusts the personal protective equipment (PPE) of a colleague in the ntensive care unit (ICU) at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge

Credit: Neil Hall/EPA

Their companies are now involved in a legal battle over the second round of deals, where Mr Saiger accuses Mr Andersson of causing “business interruptions that delayed the delivery of PPE to healthcare providers and first responders in the United Kingdom”.

Speaking to the BBC, a spokesman for Saiger LLC said the company was proud to have been involved in PPE procurement.

The spokesman said: “We have few full-time staff so for large projects we bring in short-term contractors for additional expertise and capacity, allowing us to deliver what is needed." 

Legal campaigners plan to challenge the Government in court over the “huge profits” Mr Saiger and Mr Andersson allegedly earned from the contracts.

Jolyon Maugham, an activist barrister who is leading the campaign, told the BBC: "We do not understand why, as late as June, the Government was still making direct awards of contracts sufficiently lucrative as to enable these sorts of profits to be made.

"The real criticism that is to be made here is of the huge profits that Government allows to be generated."

A UK Government spokesman, who could not comment on legal proceedings, said: “We have been working tirelessly to deliver PPE, delivering more than 4.9 billion items to the frontline so far.

“Almost 32 billion items have been ordered to provide a continuous supply, which will meet the future needs of health and social care staff.

“Proper due diligence is carried out for all Government contracts and we take these checks extremely seriously.”