By GEORGIA EDKINS, SCOTTISH ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR DAILY MAIL AND THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
Michelle Mone’s £250 million Dubai property project – hailed as the first major development to be sold using Bitcoin – was never actually built, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In 2017, former lingerie tycoon Ms Mone, 53 – dubbed Baroness Bra after being awarded a peerage – and husband Doug Barrowman, 60, unveiled proposals to erect two 40-floor skyscrapers as part of a luxury desert complex boasting high-end homes, a shopping centre and sports facilities.
To much fanfare, they said the apartments could be bought using virtual currency rather than hard cash.
Within months they claimed that buyers had already invested in ‘a number of apartments’ using the crypto tokens.
Ms Mone even told an American news network that Bitcoin (BTC) was ‘the currency of the future’, adding: ‘I’m a Baroness – so I wouldn’t be getting involved in it if it was a kind of “dodgy” industry.’
Yet Dubai government records show that the couple’s Aston Plaza and Residences, located in the Science Park district of the Middle Eastern city, were never actually built.
A property inspection report carried out by the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Agency and obtained by The Mail on Sunday confirms that the project started but was later ‘cancelled’ at just 32 per cent completion.
Pictures taken by inspectors who visited the site in January 2018 show the concrete shell of one mega tower abandoned in the middle of the desert.
Ms Mone said the apartments could be bought using virtual currency rather than hard cash
An artist’s impression of the proposed Aston Plaza Towers development in Dubai
The half-built site at the proposed Aston Plaza Towers development in Dubai
The images are a far cry from the promotional mock-ups that were advertised on the project’s website, which showed sleek, minimalist homes set across two glass tower blocks.
The revelation comes after the UK Government told the High Court in London recently that a company linked to Ms Mone and Mr Barrowman should pay back more than £121 million for breaching a Covid contract for 25 million surgical gowns.
And earlier this month we told how the couple from Glasgow were offloading some of their British property empire as they look to start a new life in Florida.
The Aston Plaza and Residences promised to offer ‘exceptional real estate for discerning professionals and young families living in the United Arab Emirates’, adding that the ‘company’s ethos is delivered through its meticulous attention to detail when creating homes’.
A press release put out by the Aston team said that the project was the ‘first joint business venture between the two business icons’ Ms Mone and her husband, who is chairman of the Knox group of companies.
According to the development’s website, 150 apartments were available to buy directly from the developers using Bitcoin, a digital currency that fluctuates in value depending on market sentiment.
It continued: ‘The highly-anticipated selection of 1,133 studio, one and two bedroom apartments, is due for completion in summer 2019.
‘Apartments offer floor-to-ceiling windows with unobstructed views of the Dubai Hills and the iconic city skyline.’
The couple’s plan for the luxury desert complex boasted high-end homes, a shopping centre and sports facilities
Ms Mone was made a peer by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015
The website added: ‘The development also boasts the Plaza – three floors dedicated to retail which will include boutiques, cafes, restaurants and a supermarket.’
Studio apartments started at 33BTC, which is the equivalent of almost £3 million if linked to today’s sterling markets.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday in December 2017, Ms Mone, who founded the Ultimo lingerie brand, said she had already sold ‘a number of apartments’ to buyers using the cryptocurrency.
Aston Towers, known as Project 152 in property databases, is listed as ‘permanently closed’ on Google.
Records show that although the project was transferred to a different Dubai-based company around 2019, work on the development continues to be ‘cancelled’.
The Mail on Sunday recently told how Ms Mone and Mr Barrowman had sold two townhouses in Glasgow to celebrity friends in the last 12 months, pocketing a profit of £2 million.
The new owners are Nick Haddow, the photographer who shot one of Ms Mone’s most risqué Ultimo push-up bra campaigns, and Paul McManus – the drummer in Scots rock band Gun and a high-profile Scottish Labour Party donor.
Meanwhile, a quaint Chelsea mews house in London linked to a company of Ms Mone’s son Declan has been sold for £2.185 million to a senior member of a Middle Eastern royal family.
Last year the couple also sold their £19 million London townhouse as well as their £6.8 million Lady M yacht.
Ms Mone’s friends say she has told them that she is seeking to start afresh in Miami.
The Scots business moguls are currently at the centre of an anti-corruption PPE fraud probe which saw £75 million of their assets frozen by the National Crime Agency.
Investigators are focused on PPE Medpro, a company led by Mr Barrowman, which was placed in a VIP priority lane for government contracts worth £203 million of taxpayers’ money following a recommendation by Ms Mone.
This came after Ms Mone was made a peer by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is suing PPE Medpro over claims that surgical gowns supplied by the firm were not fit for use.
On June 11, Paul Stanley, KC, for the DHSC, told the High Court: ‘The Government is seeking to recover the costs of the contract, as well as the costs of transporting and storing the items, which amount to an additional £8,648,691.’
The Dubai property project was sold on to a Dubai-based developer. Representatives for Ms Mone and Mr Barrowman said that no one lost any money and all deposits were held in escrow, in accordance with the law in Dubai.
