Medco Solutions - Following the Money

At Open & Candid we have been tracking the accounts of £950 million Covid Contract winners Medco Solutions. They recently published accounts for 2022 and it again raises questions to where did all the money go?

Last year accounts for Medco Solutions show a turnover of £289 million with a loss of £2.8 million and resulted in a tax correction ('refund') of £628k. Though similar to 2021 we can see that in other related party transactions, that Medco Solutions paid over £100 million for services received.

This follows on from 2021 where Medco Solutions turned over £379 million with a profit of £3.4 million. That year they paid £57.5 million for services received from other related party transactions.

Combining the last 2 years, Medco Solutions have turned over (sales) £668 million with a profit of £606k and paid tax of £204k. Whilst at the same time spending £158 million for services from other related parties of the director(s).

We tried to track the £158 million. To do this we looked at the directors of Medco Solutions, brothers Ross & Luke Robertson. They are both directors of a number of other companies. Both registered companies on the 14th September 2020. Ross registering Oxford Gate Properties Ltd for £1 alongside his wife. Luke registering Atwood Properties Ltd for £1 also alongside his wife. These two companies both now show a huge increase in shareholder funds.

Atwood Properties has grown to £18.8 million for Luke Robertson.
Oxford Gate Properties has grown to £21.6 million for Ross Robertson.

Despite this growth in funds, it would appear that this would be highly unlikely to account for the whole of £158 million paid by Medco Solutions to other related parties.

We looked at all the other companies where Ross & Luke Robertson are named directors. We were unable to see anything like the growth of Atwood & Oxford Gate. What we could see is the interesting connection to Dean Hales (son of Exclusive Plymouth Brethren leader Bruce Hales) & Lee Hazell (brother of Anthony Hazell a director of £950 million Covid contract winners Unispace/Sante). Ross & Luke Robertson are both directors alongside Dean Hales & Lee Hazell of Meraki Global Investments Ltd.

Dean Hales is a major shareholder in the Australian registered Medco Solutions PTY Ltd and also 2SAN Global here in the UK. 2SAN Global also won contracts to supply lateral flow tests and went on to employ at least 13 of the UK government Test & Trace team, including a member of the executive committee of the Test & Trace team.

Lee Hazell is the brother of Anthony Hazell, who was a director of £950 million Covid contract winner Unispace Ltd prior to the transfer over to Sante Global. Unispace was sold but the Covid contracts were transferred across to Sante Global. The owners of Sante Global & the former owners of Unispace are Gareth & Charles Hales. Two brothers of Dean Hales.

It is worth noting that Medco Solutions turnover would appear to be wholly related to the Covid Contracts awarded by the UK government.

In summary we still don't know where the money went! Watch this space!