A businessman who acted as a middleman for the government to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) says he was paid the equivalent of £1.8m in US dollar notes and Chinese currency for his work.
Khalid Hassan, 38, is the founder of Byte Technology, a Birmingham company that specialises in mobile phone accessories and spare parts. Its latest accounts say that it has assets of £12,000.
At the start of the pandemic, Hassan helped negotiate a contract between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Chinese manufacturers for 288 million items of PPE, mostly masks.
He says that he told the Chinese firms the masks were destined for Pakistan, as such orders go to the “top of the queue”, whereas “UK people get a